44 
though a herd of cattle had passed through it, so broken and 
tangled together is the straw. The worm attains its growth and 
enters its flax seed state about the first of June, and the flies of 
this second generation commonly come forth about the last of July 
and in August. 
- Miss Morris’s theory.—We do not deem it necessary to go into 
a detailed examination of the theory revived by Miss Morris in 
1840, that the eggs of the Hessian fly are deposited in the grain, 
and that the larva lies in the centre of the culm. We suppose 
this theory to be abandoned by its late advocates, from the fact 
that for four years past, we have met with no farther attempts to 
sustain it. To us it appears manifest that the lady was widely 
misled at the very outset of her observations by an error in Mr. 
Say’s account, to wit, that “the perfect fly appears early in June.” 
Were this the case she might well enquire, “ Where are the eggs 
placed? Surely not in the old and dying stalk... . and there is 
no young wheat growing from June until September.” The flies 
which Miss M. saw in June, 1836, “in countless numbers, hover- 
ing over and settling on the ears of wheat,” we cannot but sus- 
pect were the same species which in this section of country ap- 
pears in such swarms upon the heads of wheat about the middle 
of June, that it has been for years mistaken hereabouts for the 
wheat fly or midge. (Vide Quarterly Jour. Agriculture, vol. ii., 
p- 238 and 243.) In size and color it does closely resemble the 
Hessian fly, and might readily mislead any one just commencing 
their observations. That occasional specimens of the Hessian fly 
may be taken in June we do not doubt; but that the main brood 
comes out, deposits its eggs, and disappears, a month earlier than 
this, we are quite confident, from our own observations as already 
related, as well as from the testimony of almost every writer who 
speaks definitely upon this point. Those few larve which have 
been found in the centre of the wheat culm, were not unlikely of 
some other species, since in this particular its habits correspond 
with those of the Cephus pygmaeus, the Chlorops pumilionis, &c. 
That the Hessian fly larva resides in the sheath of the culm, and 
not in its centre, we feel confident Miss M. has herself become 
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