344 
[Assembly 
Its appearance and characters. —The account of the eggs, and 
also of the worms of the Hessian fly, as given by Mr. Herrick, is 
drawn up with such scrupulous care, and is so full and definite in 
every particular, that we are constrained to enhance the value of 
this essay by presenting it entire. He says; “ The eggs are laid in 
the long creases or furrows of the upper surface of the leaves 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, becoming, in a few hours, irregu¬ 
larly spotted with deeper red. Between its exclusion and its hatch¬ 
ing, these red spots are continually changing in number, size, and 
position; and sometimes nearly all disappear. A little while before 
hatching, two lateral rows of opaque white spots, about ten in num¬ 
ber, can be seen in each egg. In four days, more or less, according 
to the weather, the egg is hatched.” 
The Larva. Growth of the worm , or active larva. —Mr. Her¬ 
rick’s excellent description is continued as follows, “ The little 
wrinkled maggot, or larva, creeps out of the delicate membranous 
egg skin, crawls down the leaf, enters the sheath, and proceeds 
along the stalk, (see fig. m,) usually as far as the next joint below,” 
(fig. B. or, in other words, to the base of the sheath , which in 
the young autumnal wheat, is at the crown of the root, (fig. A. §.) 
“Here it fastens, lengthwise, (fig. n and o ,) and head downwards, 
to the tender stalk, and lives upon the sap. It does not gnaw the 
stalk, nor does it enter the central cavity thereof; but, as the larva 
increases in size, it gradually becomes embedded in the substance 
of the stalk. After taking its station, the larva moves no more, 
gradually loses its reddish color, and wrinkled appearance, becomes 
plump and torpid, is at first semitranslucent, and then more and 
more clouded with internal white spots; and when near maturity, 
the middle of the intestinal parts is of a greenish color. In five or 
six weeks (varying with the season,) the larva begins to turn brown, 
and soon becomes of a bright chestnut color, bearing some resem¬ 
blance to a flax-seed, &c.” 
i 
