HESSIAN FLY, 
21 
autumn attack in the fact that wheat in this country is not sown 
usually until well after the time when plants may be considered 
safe from eggs being laid upon them by the autumn brood of the 
Hessian Fly. 
This point of prevention is stated as follows in the Third Eeport 
of the United States Entomological Commission: “ Late sowing of 
ynost of the ivheat seed. All writers, both entomological and agricultural, 
concur in recommending this easily applied remedy, that at least a 
part of the wheat should not be sown until after the 20th September 
in the Northern States.”-!' 
In this country this remedy is applied for the most part in regular 
process of farming arrangements; commonly our wheat is not sown 
until some time after date named, and thus the young plant is not up 
until the flies which would have laid eggs on it are dead. 
The Hessian Fly has commonly two broods in the course of the 
year. The flies which come out in August or September from the 
“flax-seed” chrysalis-cases, sheltered above the second joint of the 
straw from the ground (such as we have this year been troubled with 
in England and Scotland), lay their eggs, we are informed by various 
observers. Professor Eiley, State Entomologist, U.S. A., amongst the 
number, in the grooves on the surface of the leaves, or between the stalk 
and sheath where loose, and, as soon as the footless larva or maggot 
hatches, it makes its way down the leaf to the base of the sheath, 
which in the young winter wheat is at the crown of the root. Here 
it is stated to fasten itself lengthwise to the tender stalk, and to move 
no more, but remain fixed at one spot sucking the juices until it 
becomes embedded at one extremity in the outer part of the stalk, and 
in five or six weeks, according to the season, to turn to the flax-seed 
chrysalis. In the case of attack to the young wheat, the maggots 
drawing away the juices just near the ground-level, cause it to turn 
yellow and die. 
The fljes from these “ flax-seeds” come out in spring, or about the 
beginning of May, and, as where the corn is running up to stem the 
tender ground leaves are no longer to be found, which are used for 
autumn egg-laying, the flies have no choice, but they lay them instead, 
as we know, so that the maggot when hatched shelters itself between 
the stem and sheath just above the first or second joint from the 
ground, and there it turns to the flax-seed chrysalis, from which the 
autumn brood presently come out. 
To return to autumn means of prevention, as previously said, if 
there is no accommodation ready for the autumn brood, a great deal 
of it necessarily perishes without egg-laying, but further (in case quite 
* See Third Eeport of United States Entomological Commission, Department of 
Agriculture, p. 221, 1880 - 82, 
