The YOUNG HAT8BAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Pabt 97. JANUARY, 1888. Vol. 9. 



THE HESSIAN FLY AND SOME OF ITS 

 CONGENERS* 



By BERRY KENDRICK. 



HAYING my attention called to an announcement in the " Warrington 

 Guardian/' of Saturday, 27th August last, that the " Hessian Fly w 

 (so called) had made its appearance at High Leigh near here, I decided to 

 visit the locality and investigate for myself. A train for Lymm took me 

 within easy and pleasant walking distance. The special subject in hand was 

 one on which I had not bestowed much previous attention. I set out, there- 

 fore, with a very crude idea of what to look for and how to search. Fortune 

 smiled, and near the head of Lymm Daw I met Mr. Gillandcrs, who kindly 

 undertook to accompany me to the farm of Mr. Thomas Eigby, of Swineyard 

 Hall Farm, the locality indicated in the newspaper. The house is an interest- 

 ing old brick and timber building of the Tudor period, moated, and well 

 wooded round. Here we were directed to a field where the labourers, under 

 the supervision of Mr. Kigby's brother, were at work at the harvest. It was 

 a large field, partly devoted to wheat, oats, and barley respectively. The 

 wheat had been cut and mostly carted away, the oats were partly cut and 

 standing in shocks, and the barley had been cleared off one part of the field, 

 and partly off another, except from one patch which seemed to lie lowest, 

 and to be of a moister nature than the rest. The barley here was still stand- 

 ing, but appeared in many places not only stunted in growth, but much over- 

 grown, and in some parts quite choked out and obliterated by weeds. 

 Whether this was due to the effects of the depredator in the early stages of 

 the cereal, ©r to some defect in cultivation, or to the heavy nature of the 

 soil (barley requiring a light, warm soil), I do not feel competent to say. 



*Read before the Warrington Field Club, Nov. 4th , 1887. 



