No. 150.] 
333 
“ About the year 1801, the Hessian flies first made their appea¬ 
rance in the neighborhood of the city of Richmond. We saw but 
little mischief that year. Rut in 1802 they were much more de¬ 
structive—1803, they swept whole fields—about the same in 1804” 
(H. M’Clellaiid, Amer. Farmer , vol. ii. p. 234). 
In the year 1803, we arrive at the first notice of this species, of 
a scientific nature. Dr. Mitchell, in a short article in the Medical 
Repository (vol. vii. p. 97, 98), entitled “ Further ravages of the 
wheat insect, or Tipula tritici of America, and of another species 
of Tipula in Europe,” states that it is now understood that our in¬ 
sect is a Tipula. He alludes to the extent of this genus, (ninety- 
four species being enumerated by Weber,) and though he has often 
examined our insect, and bred it so as to observe its transformations, 
he declines giving a decided opinion whether or not our species is 
different from all those that had been described. He refers to the 
species <£ treated as a nondescript” by the Rev. Mr. Kirby, in the 
Idnnccan Transactions , copies its name and technical characters, and 
closes with the remark, that whether Mr. Kirby’s insect is a new 
one or not, it is not the same animal which has been so injurious in 
this country. Had the doctor but added a few words descrip¬ 
tive of our species, he would undoubtedly be entitled to “ the 
barren honors of a synonym.” Respecting the depredations of 
the insect at this time, we learn from him, that “ during the cold and 
dry spring of 1803 these creatures again infested the wheat more 
than they had done for many years. Many crops were cut off 
early in June, and the ground plowed up for other purposes. 
During a long interval we meet with, no further notices of this 
species. Its depredations would appear to have been so slight, and 
public attention was so much engrossed, with other affairs, that noth¬ 
ing, as we have discovered, is recorded of it. 
At length, in 1817, it is stated to have renewed its ravages in 
various sections of the country. In the neighborhood of New- 
York and of Philadelphia, it is evident that it was unusually abun¬ 
dant, and in parts of Maryland and Virginia, it was perhaps more 
destructive than it had ever been before. 
