HESSIAN FLY. 
49 
others only refer to it as respectively on single fields or on a farm. 
I believe attack was reliably reported in one or two other localities, 
but specimens were not sent me. 
Doubtless other attacks may have occurred and not been mentioned 
at the time ; as, for instance, while writing this, on Dec. 26th, I have 
received the following note from Mr. Eardley Mason, of the Sycamores, 
Alford, Lincolnshire :— “ The Hessian Fly I find to be generally 
distributed in both Wheat and Barley in this district, i. e., within a 
six miles’ radius of Alford; but the damage has not, in Wheat-crops, 
been appreciable, and in the Barley-crops not much of a measurable 
quantity. 
On July 3rd Mr. Geo. Palmer, of Revell’s Hall, near Hertford 
(the first observer of Hessian Fly in this country), forwarded some 
stalks of Barley infested by this pest, then in maggot condition, with 
the observation that the large amount of rain which had lately fallen 
had made the straw very weak, and a great number of the stalks were 
broken down from the second joint, and in nearly every instance these 
contained larvae of the fly. 
On July 4th puparia were sent on Wheat-stems (with the informa¬ 
tion that they were found on Wheat as well as on Barley) by Mr. F. 0. 
Palmer, from Hale St. Nicholas, near Westgate-on-Sea, Kent; and on 
July 7th a Hessian Fly puparium, from which the contents had 
emerged, was sent me by Mr. J. Eardley Mason, of the Sycamores, 
Alford, from a farm in the next parish. 
The only information sent of Hessian Fly infestation occurring to 
any great extent was forwarded to me, on July 8th, from Temple Court, 
Clandon Park, Guildford, by Mr. G. P. Smithson. In this case 
specimens both of the maggots and puparia (or “flax-seeds”) were 
sent. Some of the maggots were still white, or white with the green 
juice on which they feed showing through the somewhat transparent 
skin. Mr. Smithson mentioned that he had found the attack present 
in most of the Wheat and Barley fields in the neighbourhood of 
Guildford within the preceding few days, some being in the larva, 
some in the pupa-state ; and further observed that this year he had 
found every specimen to be at the first knot. Last year—that is, in 
1887—he had found that in Wiltshire, also in the Richmond district 
of Yorkshire, and about Inverness, they were, as a rule, at the 2nd, 
but more often at the 3rd than the 1st knot. This he considered was 
most likely, because of late sowing, so that the second knot was not 
sufficiently developed when the fly laid her eggs. 
The fifth report of presence of Hessian Fly attack was sent me, on 
July 14th, from Birchmoor, Woburn, by Mr. Edw. Blundell, with 
specimens of “ flax-seeds ” accompanying, taken from a Wheat-field, 
and the observation, “ as there are a great many stalks broken, I have 
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