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 708 HESSE-DARMSTADT HESSIAN FLY nexation of his state to Prussia, but without effect. In 1873 the elector formally agreed to the cession of his territory to Prussia, and also renounced his right to the revenues of the elec- torate, the Prussian government granting him as compensation 2,000,000 thalers annually. Histories of Hesse-Cassel have been written by Rommel (10 vols., 1828-'58), Wippermann (1850), and Roth (1855). (See HESSE, and HESSE-NASSAU.) HESSE-DARMSTADT. See HESSE, II. HESSE-HOMBURG, a former German land- graviate, consisting of the province of Hom- burg, which was surrounded by the territory of Nassau, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Cassel, and Frankfort, and of the more populous province of Meisenheim, which lay between Rhenish Prussia, the Bavarian Palatinate, and the Old- enburg principality of Birkenfeld ; total area, 106 sq. m. ; pop. in 1864, 27,374, of whom 3,000 were Roman Catholics, about 200 Jews, and the rest Protestants. The little state was known abroad chiefly for the gambling tables at the watering place of Homburg, the capital. It belonged formerly to Hesse-Darmstadt, and became an independent territory in 1596, when it was allotted to Frederick I. by his 'father George I. In 1815 Meisenheim was added to its territory. In 1830 disturbances broke out consequent upon the French revolution. In 1835 the landgrave joined the Zollverein. A liberal constitution was promulgated in 1848, but withdrawn in 1852. The last landgrave, Ferdinand, died on March 24, 1866, when the country reverted to Hesse-Darmstadt. HESSE-NASSAU, a province of Prussia, con- sisting of the former electorate of Hesse- Cassel, the former duchy of Nassau, and the former free city of Frankfort, all of which were annexed to Prussia in 1866, and a few small districts which were ceded by Bavaria and the grand duchy of Hesse. It is bounded by the provinces of the Rhine, Westphalia, Hanover, and Saxony, by Waldeck, Brunswick, the Thuringian states, the grand duchy of Hesse, and Bavaria; area, 6,021 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 1,400,370, of whom 491,933 were Protestants, 371,736 Roman Catholics, and 36,- 390 Jews. It is divided into the districts of Cassel and Wiesbaden. The chief towns are Frankfort, Cassel, Marburg, Fulda, and Wies- baden. The principal rivers are the Main, with its affluent the Kinzig, the Rhine, on the western and southern frontiers, with the Lahn, and the Weser with the Fulda. The surface is mainly mountainous, the chief mountains be- ing the Spessart, Rhon, Westerwald, Taunus, and offshoots of the Vogelgebirge, but it no- where exceeds a height of 3,000 ft. Prom- inent among the productions are wine and wood; agriculture and cattle raising are ex- tensively carried on. Among the manufac- tures, those of cloth, jewelry, iron, and pottery are the most flourishing. The province is noted for the large number of its watering places, the best known of which are Ems, Soden, Wies- baden, Schlangenbad, and Schwalbach. The province was formed in December, 1868. (See HESSE-CASSEL, NASSAU, and FRANKFORT.) HESSIAN FLY, a small gnat or midge, of the order diptera, family cecidomyiadm or gall gnats, and genus cecidomyia (Latr.). It was called Hessian fly from the supposition that it was brought to this country in some straw by the Hessian troops during the revolutionary war ; it was scientifically described in 1817 by Mr. Say as cecidomyia destructor. The body is about one tenth of an inch long, and the ex- panse of wings one quarter of an inch or more ; the head,, antennae, thorax, and feet are black ; the hind body is tawny, marked with black on each ring, and with fine grayish hairs; the wings are blackish, tawny at the narrow base, fringed with short hairs, and rounded at the tip ; the legs pale red or brownish ; the egg tube rose-colored. The antennae are long, with bead-like swellings most distinct in the male, surrounded by whorls of short hairs, with 15 to 18 joints, globular in the male, oblong oval in the female ; the proboscis is short, without piercing bris- tles ; eyes kidney- shaped ; legs long and slender, with the first joint of the feet short ; and the wings with few veins. This insect, so destructive in some seasons in the fields of wheat, barley, and rye, generally matures two broods in the course of a year, ap- pearing in spring and autumn, earliest in the southern states ; the transformations of some are retarded in various ways, so that their life from the egg to the per- fect insect may be a year or more, rendering the continuance of the species in after years more sure. The eggs, about 7 V of an inch long, translucent, and pale red, are placed in the longitudinal creases of the leaves of both winter and spring wheat very soon after the plants are above the ground, to the number of 20, 30, or more on a leaf; if the weather be warm, they are hatched in four or five days, and the larvae, small footless maggots, tapering at each end, and of a pale red, crawl down the leaf and fix themselves between it and the main stalk, just below the surface of the ground, there remaining head downward till their transformations are completed, nourished by the juices of the plant, which they obtain by suction. Two or three larvoa thus placed will canse the plant to wither and die. In about six weeks they attain their full size, ^ of an inch long, when the skin gradually hard- ens and becomes of a bright chestnut color, about the 1st of December in the autumn brood, and in June or July in the spring brood. In the beginning of this, the pupa state, they look