229 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE HESSIAN-FLY. 
There is little doubt but that this insect was, as stated first by 
Col. George Morgan, of Prospect, N. J., and afterwards by Mr. 
Herrick and Hr. Fitch, introduced from Europe. That it was origin¬ 
ally a European insect is shown by Mr. Herrick,* who quotes a 
writer as authority for the statement that the insect was injurious 
to wheat near Geneva, in May, 1782, and again in May, 1755. It 
was also detected by Prof. J. H. Dana, in the spring of 1884, who 
found the larvae, pupae, and reared the flies from wheat growing on 
the island of Minorca. He sent several pupae and flies from Mahon 
to Mr. Herrick, who identified them as the Hessian-fly. As he 
writes, “the Mahonese asserted that the insect had been there from 
time immemorial, and often did great damage both there and in 
Spain.” Dana also collected the same insect at Naples, and also at 
Toulon, France. It seems, also, that this insect, or one very closely 
allied to it, injured the wheat in Hungary at or about the same date 
as Mr. Dana’s visit to Europe, i. e. 1884. 
Like some other insects introduced from Europe, which there are 
only slightly injurious, the Cecidomyici destructor here became pre¬ 
potent , i. e. multiplied to an unusual degree and became alarmingly 
prevalent, while in Europe it had not been even described by ento¬ 
mologists, its local ravages having been mostly confined to areas not 
visited, apparently, by entomological students. 
With Herrick, Fitch, and others, we are disposed to credit the 
belief of Colonel Morgan, that this fly was introduced into America 
in the straw used for packing, brought by the Hessian troops during 
the Revolutionary war. These troops were landed on Staten and the 
west end of Long Island, August, 1776. This, then, was the starting- 
point from which the fly originated, and it will be interesting to 
learn how it spread to its present limits, how rapidly, and whether 
it is at all migratory. Our knowledge on these points will be mainly 
derived from Fitch’s report and subsequent publications. 
By reference to the foregoing chronological table of the years when 
the Hessian-fly was prevalent and injurious, one can comprehend 
easily the rapidity of distribution and the States successively invaded 
by it. The States are arranged as nearly as possible in the order 
in which they were first visited. 
In his interesting history of the introduction of the fly into this coun¬ 
try, Dr. Fitch shows that in August, 1877, Lord Howe’s army, partly 
on Staten Island and partly at Flatbusli, on Long Island, was 
strongly reinforced by Hessians and Waldeckers, most of whom 
were from Hesse-Castle, “a district but about a hundred miles dis- 
*In the elements d’Agriculture, par Duhamel du Monceau, Paris, 1771, 2 tomes, 12mo., is a 
statement from M. de Chateaux, of which the following is a translation: “Our wheat [in the 
neighborhood of Geneva] has sustained, the present month of May. 1755, an injury from 
which the grain cultivated by the new husbandry has not been exempt. We found upon it 
a number of small white worms, which eventually turned to a chestnut color; they fix 
themselves within the leaves and gnaw the stalks; they are commonly found between the 
first joint and the root; the stalks on which they fasten grow no more; they become yel¬ 
low and dry up. We suffered the same injury in 1732, when these insects appeared in the 
middle of May, and did such damage that the crops were almost annihilated.” i. 289. The 
Hessian-fly and its parasites, by E. C, Herrick, Amer. Jour. Sc., p. 153. 1841. The chestnut- 
colored worms mentioned by this writer are evidently the “flaxseed” of the Hessian-fly. 
as no other wheat insect has such a pupa case. 
