THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



21 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 

 The Hessian Fly in Great Britain. 



Miss Ormerod has proved far too satisfactorily, that this destructive scourge 

 has made its appearance in Britain, but it scarcely appears likely to do so 

 much damage to our cereals as it has done elsewhere. The Hessian Fly 

 {Cecidomyia destructor) is double brooded, emerging in May, and August or 

 September. Those emerging in May, lay their eggs so that the larva when 

 hatched, shelters itself between the stem and sheath just above the first or 

 second joint from the ground, and there it remains sucking the juices of the 

 plant until it is so weakened that the stem falls over, bending at the injured 

 part. The autumn brood lay their eggs on the young^ leaves, and the larva 

 make their way down to the base of the leaf, or crown of the root, where they 

 fix themselves, and suck the juices of the plant until they are full-fed, and the 

 young plant turns yellow and dies. Autumn sown wheat is generally so late 

 in appearing (in this country) that the flies are for the most part dead before 

 it is up. Miss Ormerod recommends where it is attacked, that it be " plough- 

 ed in, with the eggs and maggots." One farmer, Mr. Palmer, of RevelFs 

 Hall near Hertford, allowed the self-sown barley in his worst infested field, 

 to sprout, then he had it eaten off by sheep, which would devour the leaves 

 with the eggs on them, and any that might have hatched, and the maggot 

 got too far down to be eaten off, were destroyed by being ploughed in. Late 

 sowing, later than usual, appears to be the best course to adopt in this country, 

 to get rid of the larva producing the spring brood. All interested in 

 Economic Entomology will do well to procure Miss Ormerod's pamphlet. 



NOTES ON LEPIDOPTERA. 



By B. LOCKYER. 



Diphtheea Orion. — Rather common at sugar, and at rest on oak trunks 

 in most of the woods and plantations in the New Eorest, between 1873 and 

 1875. The larva unusually common in the autumn of 1874. Saw one 

 beaten from beech. 



Acronycta Psi. — At sugar, and at rest on trunks and palings. June to 

 August, in gardens and plantations about North London, Yarmouth, and the 

 New Eorest. 



A. Leporina. — At sugar in July. The larva commoner than the moth, 

 very delicate, and subject to the attacks of a fine black scarlet-banded Ichneu- 

 mon, emerging in June. Birch copses in the New Eorest. 



