THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
85 
addilioa ol gieea corn, Lima beans, &c. The 
most essential thing to be atiendea to is the boil- 
ing, and the excellence ot the soup depends al- 
most entirely on this being done laithfully; for, 
if it be not boiled enough, however \yell the in 
gredients may have been selected and propor- 
tiot>ed, the soup will be very interior, and give 
but little idea of the delightful flavor it posses- 
ses when well done. A properly constructed 
digester is decidedly the best vessel lor boiling 
this or any other soup in; but,, where siich a 
utensil is not at hand, an earthen pot should be 
prelerred; but on no account make use of an 
iron one, as it would turn the whole souj) per- 
tectly black,, instead of the pfoper color, viz: 
green, colored with the rich yellow of tomatoes. 
The time usually required for boiling okra soup 
is about five hours; during which, it should be 
occasionally stirred, and the ingredients mash- 
ed. When taken otf, the original quantity will 
be reduced to about one-half, and the meat 
“done to rags;” the whole forming a homoge- 
neous mass, of the consistence of thick porridge. 
TTfrlF. HEISSaAN FLY. 
[Observations communicated at the raquest of the 
Hon. H. 1.. Ellsworth, by E. C. Hernck, librarian of 
Yale College, Conn.] 
The insect commonly called the Hessian Jly, 
which has for so many years ravaged the wheat- 
fields of our country, appears to have been 
wholly unknown here before the American re- 
volution. It is usually stated that the insect 
was first noticed in the year 1776 or 1779, on 
Staten Island and the westerly end ol Long 
Island, and was generally supposed to have 
been introduced among straw brought hither by 
the Hessian troops in the service of Great Bri- 
tain, The ravages ol the insect soon attracted 
general attention ; and as early as the year 1788, 
serious apprehensions were excited in England 
that the destroyer might be conveyed thither in 
some cargo of wheat. The alarm there was so 
great, that the government took up the matter; 
“ the privy council sat day alter uay, anxiously 
debating what measures should be adopted to 
ward otf the danger of a calamity more to be 
dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or 
pestilence; expresses were sent off in all direc- 
tions to the officers of the customs at the outports 
respecting the examination of cargoes; des- 
patches written to the ambassadors m France, 
Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain that in- 
formation, ot the want of which they were now 
so sensible; and so important was the business 
deemed, that the minutes of the council, and 
the documents collated Irom, fill upwards of 
200 octavo pages.” (Kirby and Spence, i,50.) 
On the25tb of June ol that year, an order in 
council was issued, prohibiting the entrance 
into Great Britain of wheat raised in any of the 
territories ot the United States; intending, by 
this measure, to keep out the much dreaded ene- 
my. Soon alter the arrival of the news of this 
order, the supreme executive council of Penn- 
sylvania addressed a letter ol inquiry to the 
“Philadelphia Society for promoting Agricul- 
ture,” who promptly replied that the plant ol the 
wheat alone was injured, and that the insect 
was not propagated by sowing the grain which 
grew on fields infected with it. The prohibition 
was doubtless based on the erroneous represen- 
tation ol Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Blagden, 
which they continued to enforce even atter they 
were better instructed by Dr. Currie. It is sul- 
ficiently remarkable, that, although the wheat 
was prohibited an “entry,” it was allowed to 
be stored ; so that the Hessian fly, it concealed 
among the grain, would, after all, have had a 
good oppor! unity to escape into the country. In 
eight or ten months, the government bought the 
imprisoned wheat at prime cost, kiln-dried it, 
and resold it at great loss, and almost immedi- 
ately took off the prohibition. (Memoir of 
Currie, ii, 65.) 
In the course of a few years after this, the 
Hessian fly was found in every part of our 
country where wheat was cultivated. From the 
period ot the revolution down to the present 
lime, no insect in the land hasrecei ved so much 
public attention, or has called out so many 
scoics of pages of observation and speculation. 
These are to be found scattered through maga- 
gines, agricultural injurnals, and common news- 
papers. But, In dehance of them all, the Hes- 
sian fly continues its destructive work, and is 
probably as little under the actual control oi 
man as it was half a century ago. 
Whether this insect was an original inhabi- 
tant of this country, or was imported by the 
Hessian soldiers, is a question not yet settled. 
At the lime of the discussion which led to the 
prohibitory order, an extensive inquiry in Eu- 
rope resulted in the conclusion that the insect 
v'as wholly unknown there. Yet, in the year 
1834, it was found existing in several parts in 
southern Europe, and injuring the wheat in the 
sarhe manner as in this country. This impor- 
tant discovery was made by my friend, Mr. 
James D. Dana,, who had previously been en- 
gaged with me in the examination oi the Hes- 
sian fly, and was well qualifiea to decide upon 
the case. (American Journal ol Sciences, xli, 
153 ) Moreover, we have an account from the 
vicinity of Geneva, in Switzerland, reported by 
Duhamel, of an insect destroying the wheat 
there as long since as 1732, in the manner ofilhe 
He.ssian fly ; and an account, in 1823, by Raddi, 
ol what is probably the same insect, in various 
places in Italy. No traces have been delected 
of any insect ol the habits ol the Hessian fly, 
in our country, earlier than the year 1776 ; and 
if this insect is a native ol North America, 
what plant sustained it before wheat, rye and 
barley were imported? On the other hand, we 
have no proof that the Hessian fly has ever been 
found in Germany ; and it is certain that, if the 
wheat were reaped in the ordinary manner, 
nearly all the available insects would be left in 
the stubble ; and, further, the straw alleged to 
have been brought by the Hessians must have 
been that which ripened in the summer of 1775, 
and from which most of the insects which it 
contained would have escaped before August, 
1776. On a question of such uncertainly, no 
one need quarrel with another’s opinion. 
The first scientific description ol the Hessian 
fly was published in the Journal of the Acade- 
my of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, lor 
July, 1817, (No. 3, i, 45,) by the late distinguish- 
ed entomologist, Thomas Say. He there gives 
it the systematic name ol ihs cecidomyia destruc- 
tor ; and to his description adds a lew remarks 
relative to its habits, and furnishes, also, an ac- 
count of another insect, by which the fly is often 
destroyed. Without going into a minute and 
tedious technical description, the following ac- 
count is offered as probably sufficient to enable 
an observer to identity the insect in its various 
transformations; The Hessian fly is a two- 
winged insect, with head, eyes, and thorax black; 
the head is small and depressed; the palpi (or 
mouth feelers) are three or four jointed — the 
basal one being the smallest ; the antennae are 
about half as long as the body, and consist each 
ot from 14 to 17 oval joints, besides the basal 
joint, which appears double; the wings are 
large, hairy, rounded at the tip, and have each 
two or three longitudinal net vures ; the abdo- 
men is of a tawny red, and furnished, irregular- 
ly, with many black hairs ; consists ot seven 
rings or segments, besides the ovipositor, which 
is ot two sides, and of a rose-red color ; the 
ovipositor, when extended to the utmost, is about 
one-third as long as the abdomen; length of 
body, from the front of the head to the end of 
the abdomen, about one-eighth of an inch ; the 
legs are long and slender, pale red, and covered 
sparsely with dark hair. The male is equal 
in size to the female, but generally less black, 
with antennae somewhat longer, and about three- 
lourths the length of the body. The joints of 
the antennae are globular, and slightly separated 
from each other. Several other species of the 
genus cecidoniyia, or one closely allied to it, are 
common in this region. But the Hessian fly is 
the largest and darkest of our species with which 
I am acquainted. 
The eggs are laid in the long creases or fur- 
rows of the upper surface of the leaves, (i. e. 
the blade or strap-shaped part) of the young 
wheat plant. While depositing her eggs, the 
insect stands with her head towards the point 
or extremity of the leaf, and at various distances 
between the point and where the leaf joins and 
surrounds the stalk. The number found on a 
single leaf varies from a single egg up to thirty, 
or even more. The egg is about a fiftieth of an 
inch long, cylindrical, rounded at the ends, 
glossy and translucent, of a pale red color, be- 
coming, in a few hours, irregularly spotted with 
deeper red. Between its exclusion and its hatch- 
ing, these red spots are continually changing in 
number, size, and position ; and sometimes near- 
ly all disappear. A little while before hatching, 
two lateral rows of opaque white spots, about 
ten in number, can be seen in each egg. In four 
days, more or less, according to the weather, the 
egg is hatched; the little wrinkled maggot, or 
larva, creeps out of the delicate membranous 
egg sKin, crawls down the leaf, enters thesheath 
and proceeds along the stalk, usually as far as 
the next joint below. Here it fastens, length- 
wise and head down w'ards, to the tender stalk, 
and lives upon the sap. It does not gnaw the 
stalk, nor does it enter the central cavity there- 
of; but, as the larva increases in size, it gradu- 
ally becomes imbedded in the substance of the 
stalk. Atter taking its station, the larva move.s 
no more, gradually loses its reddish color and 
wrinkled appearance, becomes plump and tor- 
pid, is at first semi-translucent, and then more 
clouded with internal white spots; and, when 
near maturity, the middle of the intestinal parts 
is of a green ish color. In five or six weeks ( va- 
rying with the season) the larva begins to turn 
brown, and soon becomes of a bright chesnm 
color. In this slate, the insect bears some re- 
semblance to a flax-seed; and many observers 
speak of this as the jlax-seed state. The larva 
has now become a chrysalis, or pupa, andtakes 
no more food. The pupa within gradually 
cleaves off from the outer skin, and, in the course 
ot two or three weeks, is entirely detached Irom 
it, so that the skin of the larva (now brown and 
hardened, and of a sort of leathery texture) has 
become a case or shell for the pupa inside. The 
pupa shell is, of course, in size and form, like 
the larva: it is oval, bulging out beneath, and 
of the same curve above as the outside of the 
stalk ; divided by crosslines into twelve seg- 
ments, and is about an eighth ol an inch long. 
Within this shell the pupa gradually advances 
towards the winged state ; it contracts in length, 
but not in breadth ; and its skin appears covered 
with minute elevations. Just before evolution, 
we find the pupa invested in a delicate mem- 
brane, or scarf, (which, not long previous, was 
its outer skin,) through which many parts ol 
the future fly may be distinctly seen. Finally, 
this scarf splits along the thorax, or back, and 
the insect comes forth, both from this and the 
pupa shell, a perfect two-winged fly. 
This is, in brief, the history of an individual 
w hich has been so fortunate as to escape all the 
numerous enemies with which its race is sur- 
rounded from the moment the egg is deposited; 
but of these, more hereafter. 
In the northern and middle States, at least, 
winter wheat is sown in September or October. 
Soon after the plants have appeared above 
ground, the Hessian fly begins to lay her eggs 
upon them; and this operation is continued du- 
ring several weeks, according to the season. 
The eggs laid on the green leaves are in a few 
days hatched, and the young larvas crawl down 
the stalk, and take their stations ; generally clus- 
tering around the stalk at the nearest joint be- 
low. Here, by sucking of the plant, they in- 
crease in size, become lull and hard, and, press- 
ing deeply into the stalk, they impair its growth ; 
and if their number about one joint is large, the 
stalk is killed. Frequently the plant, although 
impoverished, advances far enough to head out ; 
but when the grain begins to fill, its own weight, 
or perhaps the wind, causes the stalk to break 
down. The injury done to the wheat is occa- 
sioned by the exhaustion of the sap, and by the 
pressure on the yielding stalk. 
