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UNITED STATES 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Miscellaneous Publication No. 198 
Washington, D.C. September 1934 
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HESSIAN 
FLY, PHYTOPHAGA DESTRUCTOR (SAY) 
By J. S. WabE, associate entomologist, Division of Cereal and Forage Insects, 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 
INTRODUCTION 
It is the purpose of this publication to present in a form as condensed 
as is feasible an annotated bibliography of the hessian fly, Phytophaga 
destructor (Say), with special reference to the literature relating to the 
insect within its areas of distribution in North America north of 
Mexico, to June 30, 1933. 
The outstanding importance of this insect as a crop pest and. the 
almost incalculable damage it has wrought to American farmers since 
it gained entry into the United States indicate that it will continue to 
be a subject of great interest and study, and the value of a bibliography 
to future investigators is obvious. | 
This bibliography presents results of some 18 years of collection by 
the compiler in a number of the larger public libraries in the eastern 
part of the United States. The assembling and much of the work, 
however, has been done at Washington where, through the facilities 
of departmental and other libraries, such studies can be prosecuted 
with a fullness and completeness not elsewhere possible. In this con- 
nection it is a pleasure to acknowledge the many favors extended by 
officials of all the institutions concerned, as well as by many of the 
compiler’s colleagues, and others who from time to time have aided in 
making the work more complete. 
Since H. A. Hagen, C. V. Riley, and others have discussed quite 
fully in the references cited herein the probable manner of introduc- 
tion and the early appearance of the fly in North America, only brief 
mention is made here of some of the more noteworthy records pertain- 
ing to its early history. Considerable confusion regarding the identity 
of the fly apparently existed during the early decades of the period 
covered, and this has intensified the difficulty in the selection of 
references. Some of the earliest of these records, irrespective of cor- 
rect identity of the pest, were anonymous or obscure contributions 
to periodicals between 1785 and 1825, notably Pennsylvania Mercury 
and Universal Advertiser; Annals of Agriculture; American Monthly 
Magazine and Critical Review; and American Farmer. Duning this 
period there were also a few contributions to transactions of léarned 
societies, such as Matthew Carey’s American Museum; American 
Philosophical Society Transactions; New York Society for Promotion 
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