PACKAKD] THE HESSIAN FLY. 695 



Remedieft. — "While the best way to encounter this insect is to breed 

 and set loose the natural insect-parasites which prey upon it, the most 

 obvious remedy is to burn the stubble in the autumn or early spring for 

 several years in succession. If farmers would, co-operate, this means 

 would be sufficient to so reduce the numbers of this species that its 

 attacks would be comparatively harmless. Plowing in the soil is of 

 no use in the case of this insect, as the fly would easily find its way up 

 to the surface of the ground. 



The Hessian Fly, Cecidomyia destructor of Say. (Plate LXV, 

 Fig. 1.) 



Two or three small, reddish-white ruagcjots embedded in the ci'owu of the roots or 

 just above the lower jnjnt, causing the srallvs and leaves to witlier and die; the mag- 

 gots harden, turn brown, then resembling a flaxseed, and change into little black 

 midges with smoky wings, which appear in spring and autumn, and lay from twenty 

 to thirty eggs in a crease in the leaf of the young plant. 



The Hessian fly was so called because it was first noticed as injurious 

 to wheat during the revolutionary war, and was thought to have been 

 imported from Europe in some straw by the Hessian troops. " It was 

 first observed in the year 1776 in the neighborhood of Sir William 

 Howe's debarkation on Staten Island, and at Flatbush, on the west 

 end of Long Island. Having multiplied in these places, the insects 

 gradually spread over the southern parts of ISfew York and Connecticut, 

 and continued to proceed inland at the rate of 15 or 20 miles a year. 

 They reached Saratoga, 200 miles from their original station, in 1789. 

 Dr. Chapman says that they were found west of the Alleghany Mount- 

 ains in 1797 ; from their progress through the country, having appa- 

 rently advanced about 30 miles every summer. Wheat, rye, barley, 

 and even timothy-grass, were attacked by them; and so great were their 

 ravages in the larva state that the cultivation of wheat was abandoned 

 in many places where they had established themselves." — (Harris.) Dr. 

 Fitch also thinks that this is an European importation, but Curtis in 

 his "Farm Insects" doubts whether the European midge be of the 

 same species. But it is reported by KoUar to have been known in 

 Europe as early as 1833, and by later observers to be commonly diff"ased 

 in Europe, and Kollar pronounces it as indigenous to Europe. Of late 

 years it has not been reported to be so destructive as formerly, and no 

 mention is made of it by the different State entomologists in their an- 

 nual reports. 



In the accompanying map showing the probable distribution of the 

 Hessian fly and wheat-midge, I have been mainly dependent for my 

 data regarding its distribution south and west of New York ui)ou 

 the Monthly Reports of the Agricultural Department at Washington. 

 But the information there given, I regard as quite unreliable and un- 

 satisfactory. It is quite likely that the Hessian fly may have been in 

 those reports confounded with the wheat-midge and vice versa, or that 

 when the "fly" is mentioned as injuring the wheat-crop, some other 

 tiy or insect has been the culprit. If, therefore, I have been in error, it 

 will be from causes beyond my control. At the same time it is not un- 

 likely that the area of distribution of both these insects may be found 

 to coincide with that of each of the two, and with that representing the 

 cultivation of wheat.* This latter has been taken from a map compiled 



* Specimens of the Hessian fly, wheat-midge, and joint-worm, and notes on their 

 habits and ravages, are earnestly desired by the writer for aid in improving and cor- 

 recting the maps herewith presented. Specimens of this insect and the wheat-midge 

 from all parts of the country are earnestly desired by the author. 



