Tfie Progress of the Hessian Fly. 
435 
*Fann Insects,'* and gives a short description of it showing 
that he was perfectly acquainted with its form and its methods 
of destruction. Before Curtis, Kirby and Spence were keenlv 
examining crops of all kinds for insect foes, as is evidenced bv 
their standard work, a very text-book of economic entomologv.t 
These observers were acquainted with the Hessian Fly, as thev 
allade to it, but they make no mention of its bavin? been found 
in England. Since Kirby and Spence and Cunis, there have 
been close observers, notablv ^liss Ormerod, who has been 
working indefatigably in this field for at least twenty years, and 
bv whom such an attack as that of the Hessian Flj would have 
been discovered upon its earliest appearance. 
In 1779 there was a great scare concerning this insect in 
England, and the public mind was greatly exercised. The 
Privy Council consulted Sir Joseph Banks, the then President 
of the Royal Society, and prohibited the introduction of wheat 
from America for a time, until it was ascenained that the insect, 
which was termed the flying weevil," as may be seen in the 
records of the Privv Council Office, was not the Hessian Flv. 
From this it mav be supposed that, not only at that time, but 
long afterwartls, the attention of entomologists and farmers was 
directed to the discovery of this insect, of whose depredations in 
America such evil reports had crossed the Atlantic. In short, 
.11 the circumstances, and indeed all the evidence, tend to prove 
-at it has only been a short time in this country, and in all 
probability not Ion? before l-^SG. 
No fresh light has been thrown upon the mode of its intro- 
duction into Great Britain, and the conjectures that were made 
upon its first appearance, to the effect that it was brought from 
America with straw used for packing goods, must still be 
hazarded. There is certain! v some reason for this, since the 
first outbreak in England was noticed upon Revell s Hall Farm 
near Hertford, to which quantities of manure from stables and 
cow-sheds in London had been brought. The straw in which 
goods are packed would naturally find its way to the stables and 
cow-shed near the depots to which they were consigned. At the 
same time it must not be forgotten that an outbreak was reported 
at Inverness, in Scotland, just after that at Revell's Hall, though 
it is as likely that infested straw might have been brought to 
Inverness with goods in the same wav as to London. Straw 
does not come in bulk from the L'nited States : but it is im- 
ported from France, Belgium, and Holland, which have not 
been suffering from the attack of the insect in recent vears. 
• • Farm Instcts.' By J. Ctmis. lSo9. 
t ' The Introduction 10 Entcmolojrr.' Bv IT. Kirby and W. Spence. 7th edit, 
p. 91. ■ 
VOL. xxm. — s. s. 2 G 
