32 
tled on the ridged surface of a blade completely within my reach 
and distinct observation. She immediately commenced disbur- 
thening her apparently well stored abdomen, by depositing her 
eggs in the longitudinal cavity between the little ridges of the 
blade. I could distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind of tube 
or sting, or by the elongation of the body; the action of the in- 
sect in making the deposit, being similar to that of the wasp in 
stinging. After she had deposited, as I supposed, some eight or 
ten eggs, I easily caught her, upon the blade, between my finger 
and thumb. ... . After that, I continued my observations on the 
flies, caught several similarly occupied, and could see the eggs 
uniformly placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades of the 
wheat; their appearance being that of minute reddish specks. 
Its appearance and characters.—The account of the eggs, and 
also of the worms of the Hessian fly, as given by Mr. Herrick, is 
drawn up with such scrupulous care, and is so full and definite in 
every particular, that we are constrained to enhance the value of 
this essay by presenting it eutire. He says, “ The eggs are laid 
in the long creases or furrows of the upper surface of the leaves 
of the young wheat plant. While depositing her eggs, the insect 
stands with her head towards the point or extremity of the leaf, 
and at various distances between the point and where the leaf 
joins and surrounds the stalk. The number found on a single leaf, 
varies from a single egg up to thirty, or even more. The egg 
is about a fiftieth of an inch long, cylindrical, rounded at the 
ends, glossy and translucent, of a pale red color, becoming, in a 
few hours, irregularly spotted with deeper red. Between its ex- 
clusion and its hatching, these red spots are continually changing 
in number, size, and position; and sometimes nearly all disap- 
pear. A little while before hatching, two lateral rows of opaque 
white spots, about ten in number, can be seen in each egg. In 
four days, more or less, according to the weather, the egg is 
hatched.” 
Tue Larva. Growth of the worm, or active larva.—My. Her- 
rick’s excellent description is continued as follows, “The little 
winged maggot, or larva, creeps out of the delicate membranous 
