XXIII. 
REPORT OX INSECTS OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE 
DURING THE YEAR 1886. 
By E. W. Silvester, E.B.Met.Soc. 
Read at Watford , 19 th April, 1887. 
The following observations of tbe first appearance of tbe insects 
in tbe Boyal Meteorological Society’s list have been made by Mr. 
Hopkinson of Watford (now St. Albans) ; Mr. Willis of Harpenden ; 
Mr. It. T. Andrews of Hertford; and Miss Simpson of High Wycb 
near Sawbridgewortb. 
Melolontha vulgaris (cock-cbafer), seen at Harpenden, May 28tb; 
at Hertford, April 19tb. 
Timarcha Iceviqata (bloody-nosed beetle), seen at Harpenden, 
March 23rd. 
Apis mellifica (boney-bee), seen at Harpenden, March 17th; 
at Watford, March 19th; at High Wych, March 24th. 
Vespa vulgaris (common wasp), seen at Harpenden, January 28th. 
Pieris brassiere (large white cabbage-butterfly), seen at Hertford, 
April 19th; at Watford, April 23rd. 
P. raped (small white cabbage-butterfly), seen at Watford, April 
5th ; at Harpenden, April 24th. 
Anthocharis Cardamines (orange-tip butterfly), seen at Harpenden, 
May 2nd. 
jEpinephele Janira (meadow-brown butterfly), seen at Watford, 
June 2nd. 
Bibio Marci (St. Mark’s fly), seen at Watford, April 25th. 
The most important insect attack of the year 1886 has been that 
of the Hessian fly, which was first seen in this country on the 
27th of July, when specimens of the flax-seed-like puparia were 
forwarded to Miss E. A. Ormerod by Mr. Gr. E. Palmer, from his 
barley-fields near Hertford. Not only our own county, but the 
whole of England, is indebted to the Consulting Entomologist of 
the Boyal Agricultural Society for having lost no time in verify¬ 
ing the attack by a personal visit to the place where Mr. Palmer 
first discovered the dreaded “flax-seeds,” and for her subsequent 
observations, as set forth in her pamphlet on ‘ The Hessian Ely.’ 
On the 30th of July Miss Ormerod examined the fields near 
Hertford, and found the barley-stems doubled sharply down, usually 
a little above the second joint, and between this elbow and the 
joint below there lay, closely pressed to the stem, and covered by 
the sheathing leaf, the flax-seed-like chrysalis cases. Sometimes 
a gall or some amount of swelling of the stem occurs just above 
where the maggot feeds, but in the specimens which Miss Ormerod 
examined this was rarely noticeable. 
“ On the 8th of September the first fly developed from the 
puparia. This, to the naked eye, was a stout-made little brown 
gnat with a darker head and body, legs of a rather light brown, 
