THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



3 



the reach of all, but merely touch upon the salient points of interest as given 

 in all the authorities I have quoted. I may here add parenthetically that the 

 " Leisure Hour " for October, contained an article on the subject, mostly if 

 not entirely derived from Miss Ormerod's work, the wood-cuts being 

 identical. 



The " Hessian Fly" [Cecidomyia destructor) was first observed in Long 

 Island, United States, in 1776, and gradually extended its ravages inland till 

 the whole country was overrun by it. It is related that the flies swarmed in 

 the houses during the harvest, filling every utensil in use, so that 500 have 

 have been counted in one tumbler, left a few minutes with a little beer in it. 



The first reliable observation of its appearance in Europe was in 1880, in 

 Southern France and Italy, and since then it has found its way to South 

 Russia, Hungary, Austria, and latterly even to the South of England and the 

 North of Scotland, two localities singlarly far apart. 



The following is a literal quotation, from Kirby and Spence, of its 

 habits in America, and since confirmed by other writers : — "It cammences 

 its depredation in autumn, as soon as the plant begins to appear above 

 ground, when it devours the leaf and stem with equal voracity till stopped by 

 the frost. When the return of spring brings a milder temperature the fly 

 appears again, and deposits its eggs in the heart of the main stems, which it 

 perforates, and so weakens, that when the ear begins to grow heavy, and is 

 about to go into the milky state, it breaks down and perishes." 



Miss Ormerod further says — On examination in the fields near Hertford, 

 on the 30th of July, I found the stems doubled sharply down a little above 

 the joint, and between this double and the joint below there lay, closely 

 pressed to the stem, and covered by the sheathing leaf, the flax-seed like 

 chrysalis cases.. The injury is caused by the fly-maggots lying at the same 

 spot sucking the juices from the stem, which is thus weakened, and presently, 

 although both the stem and ear above are more or less stunted, yet the weak 

 piece of stem cannot bear their weight, and it bends down at the injured part. 

 Sometimes a gall or some amount of swelling of the stem occurs just above 

 where the maggot fed, but in the specimens I examined this was rarely 

 noticeable. There were from one up to sometimes three or four (pupae) in 

 number, usually only one or two ; they were invariably set upright (not 

 lengthwise across the stem), and sometimes, but not always, were fixed at the 

 lower end by being a little embedded in the straw. The flax-seeds (as they 

 are called from their resemblance) were for the most part the sixth of an inch 

 long, of a spindle or long oval shape, some flattened on one side, and more 

 so on the other ; the two extremities bluntly pointed, one conical, the other, 

 which is the anterior end, usually slightly bent forward, with a pinch across 



