36 
CORN. 
blade. I could not say that it laid more than two eggs at a time 
without a change of position, nor how many it laid.” 
First Appearance of Hessian Fly from chrysalids of the 
summer of 1887. 
The first appearance of the Hessian Fly from the “flax-seeds” of 
this summer’s harvest was reported to me on Sept. 5th by Mr. 
Inchbald (in this case from a locality in Yorkshire). He wrote :—“ I 
have bred one imago already from a field near Wetherby, and I take it 
to be the scout—the foremost scout—of the great army so soon to 
follow in its wake. I have two boxes full of pupae, and these have not 
passed through the screening process.The gnat reared is 
darker,—swarthier than those of the spring brood; it is a female, and 
I think slightly larger than those I have previously reared.” 
On Sept. 27tli Mr. Inchbald further wrote that he had reared four 
specimens of the Hessian Fly—two males and two females—from 
pupae obtained in August from the culms of Wheat and Barley in the 
neighbourhood of Wetherby. He observed:—“We find the nearest 
approach of the fly to the east coast of Yorkshire is Ellerby, near to 
Burton Constable. I have a considerable number of recently-gathered 
pupae. I got them in the hope of being able to supply my many 
friends with living specimens before the winter. I now think they 
will keep in abeyance till May, if they be not pierced.” 
Parasites of the Hessian Fly. 
The parasites of the Hessian Fly, which we have at present 
observed in Britain, are the maggots of very minute four-winged flies, 
which lay their eggs on the maggot, or, it may be, on the chrysalis of 
the Hessian Fly, and, by means of the maggot from the egg preying 
on the pest in its early state, prevent large numbers of it reaching 
maturity. 
The presence of these parasites is looked on in Hessian Fly 
infested countries as a very important help in keeping down the pest; 
and, on May 28th, Mr. D. Taylor noticed the greater proportion of 
parasites to “pest” developed from his puparia of Hessian Fly. In 
one bottle containing not more than fifty pupa-cases, at the above 
date, no specimen of Hessian Fly had developed, and about twenty- 
three parasite-flies had appeared. 
That these parasites accompanied the Hessian Fly from the very 
beginning of the first observation of attack last year is plain (a speci¬ 
men having been secured in September, 1886), and since then, as is 
well known to all readers of the agricultural or other journals, the 
