10 THE HESSIAN FLY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
references to the Hessian fly before 1776 must in reality have referred 
to other species. Those interested will find full details in the papers 
cited in the bibliography. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
At present the Hessian fly has a very wide distribution throughout 
the wheat-growing region of Europe and America. There is evidence 
of its having existed probably from prehistoric time in the countries of 
southern Europe adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, and, as has been 
stated elsewhere, great probability that it has followed its natural food 
plant (wheat) from the supposed original habitat of that cereal in west- 
ern Asia. Its introduction into America has already been mentioned, 
and we need srate here only those facts concerning its distribution 
throughout the United States that are of importance in connection 
with the wheat industry. Its spread in this country from about the 
year 1776 was for a number of years at a pretty uniform rate of prog- 
ress until it occupied the wheat-growing district of the eastern United 
States. Following this, its distribution quite naturally followed the 
expansion of the wheat district associated with the development and 
settlement of the Mississippi Valley. Its eastward distribution seems 
to have been more gradual than the westward, a recent record placing 
its extreme limit in Maine, at Bangor. Southward it has gone as far 
as the northern part of South Carolina, and in its extreme southern 
limit in Texas it reaches nearly to the Gulf. Westward it occurs 
throughout a considerable part of Kansas, the eastern part of Nebraska, 
and northward, according to Webster, it has been found in North 
Dakota, and records furnished by Dr. Howard ])lace it at Clinton, Big- 
stone County, and Barrett, Grant County, Minn. (See inap, frontispiece.) 
On the Pacific coast it has been recorded for the territory adjacent to 
San Francisco by Koebele (55), and Professor Woodworth (141) dis- 
cusses its occurrence and variations in the wheat fields of the experiment 
station at Berkeley. An article by Mr. A. Gains (-41), entitled " Potato 
bug and Hessian fly," in the Oregon Naturalist for January, 1896, 
would indicate that it has appeared in Oregon, but the article is not 
at hand for a determination of the locality. 
Professor Piper, of the Washington Agricultural College, states that 
the Hessian fly is as yet unknown in Washington, although they are in 
fear of its introduction. Professor Aldrich, of the University of Idaho, 
says that it has not appeared in that State. 
From this distribution it may be concluded that the Hessian fly 
has practically the same distribution as its food plants except for the 
northern limit, where conditions seem to interfere with the successful 
existence of the insect. 
In Germany the Hessian fly has attracted frequent attention, but it 
appears to be confined more to the southern provinces and to be less 
noticed, or at least not often destructive in the north. Liudemann 
(60) credits it to Silesia, Posen, Pomerania, Bavaria, and Wurtemburg. 
