12 
CORN. 
The Hessian Fly. Cecidomyia destructor , Say.* 
Hessian Fly, nat. size and magnified. 
The year 1886 was memorable, agriculturally, for the appearance 
of the Hessian Fly as a pest of the Wheat and Barley in Great 
Britain; and 1887 has shown it to be to all appearance settled in the 
country. Whether the fly had been present before last year we cannot 
tell, but we can tell very certainly that it was not known to have been 
present; and also that its attacks had not been recorded agriculturally; 
nor had the fly, the Cecidomyia destructor , Say, been entered in the 
lists of British insects. 
. There are several kinds of injury to growing straw,—some caused 
by weather, some by insects,—which, in their effect on the stalk, bear 
such a strong general resemblance to that of the Hessian Fly maggot 
that without careful examination it is almost impossible to tell the 
difference. Many such have been sent me during the past season, 
with the inquiry whether it was “ the dreaded pest,” and, as in the 
many surmises sent me as to this attack having been noticed ten or 
twenty or even fifty years ago not one instance has ever been given of 
the “flax-seed” being found near the knots of the stalk, my own 
opinion certainly is that the attacks were of the same nature as those 
so generally mistaken for the Hessian Fly attack at the present day. 
But however this may be, the case, as it stands now, appears thus: 
Hessian Fly made its first appearance as an acknowledged pest amongst 
us last year over a small area in England, and a larger and more 
scattered area in Scotland: this year the area of its presence has 
increased to a more or less broad band sweeping up the eastern side 
of the kingdom from Kent to Cromarty, and also present at some 
localities in the South of England but at the same time, although the 
weather has been what is considered exceptionally suitable to the 
* This paper is a reprint, with additions, of my pamphlet, 1 The Hessian Fly in 
Great Britain in 1887,’ which was issued during the winter in order to give the 
reports of the past season as soon as possible.— Ed, 
