3 
produced by the wheat-fly had been known for some time to the 
farmers of England, though imputed by them to a wrong cause. 
He says, ‘ What the farmers call the yellows in wheat, and which 
they consider as a kind of mildew, is, in fact, occasioned by a small 
yellow fly, with blue wings, about the size of a gnat. This blows in 
the ear of the corn, and produces a worm, almost invisible to the 
naked eye ; but, being seen through a pocket microscope, it appears 
a large yellow maggot, of the color and gloss of amber, and is so 
prolific that 1 distinctly counted forty-one living yellow maggots in 
the husk of one single grain of wheat, a number sufficient to eat up 
“and destroy the corn in a whole ear. One of these yellow flies laid 
at least eight or ten eggs, of an oblong shape, on my thumb, only 
while carrying by the wing across three or four ridges.” (Harris's 
Mass. Report, p. 437.) 
It was several years subsequent to this date, that the accounts of 
the appalling ravages of the hessian fly among the wheat crops of 
America reached Europe ; and as this fly was universally believed 
to have been derived from the old world, extensive and careful exa- 
minations of the grain fields there were made, to detect it, that its 
habits might be learned, and means devised for preventing its be- 
coming such a scourge as it was to this country. These investiga- 
tions, conducted often at the public expense, and by men whose 
acquirements peculiarly fitted them for such a work, resulted in a 
confident announcement, which received general credence for a long 
series of years, that the hessian fly did not exist in Europe ; yet in 
their course, several other species of insects injurious to the culti- 
vated grains of that continent were discovered, and the wheat-fly 
received a particular examination. Mr. Curtis, generally so accurate 
in his statements, says that it was‘first discovered at this time ; but 
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his insect, on being pressed between the fingers, left “a little dry pale brown glossy 
dust ;” whereas the wheat-fly leaves no mark upon the fingers, unless it be actually 
crushed, in which case its fluid juices produce a yellow stain, without any glossiness, 
Every one accustomed to the handling of insects, will at once recognize the character 
in question as applying admirably to some small species of moth; and the “Committee 
on Husbandry” of the Society, in their remarks at the close of Col. Carter’s paper, are 
doubtless correct in their statement, that these insects “appear to be of the same kind 
with those that do the like mischief in Europe, which a gentleman of Angumois 
describes to Mr, Duhamel,” and which have since become so well known as the 
Angumois grain-moth,” described by the naturalist Olivier under the technical name 
of Alucita cerealella, 
