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HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



polyzoons, mollusca, and Crustacea, not one of which 

 was injured by the tangles. A pair of scissors 

 were, I found, very useful in removing the specimens. 

 I am afraid that with one exception (the channel 

 between Penmon and Puffin Island) my choice of 

 localities for dredging was unfortunate. One place, 

 about half a mile from Beaumaris pier, in the direction 

 of Puffin Island, was recommended to me by several 

 fishermen as being likely to repay the trouble of dredg- 

 ing, but I was much disappointed with the results of my 

 efforts. However, I feel quite certain that the tangle- 

 dredge will prove to be a useful implement in the 

 hands of marine zoologists, and I shall be glad if 

 some of the readers of Science-Gossip will try it, 

 and record their experience. Manchester. 



CANADIAN NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



I SAW in last October number of Science- 

 Gossip, an advertisement offering specimens of 

 the notorious Doryphora decem-lineata for sale at 

 one shilling each. We pay for specimens also, but 

 we pay a few cents a pint, or so much a hundred, 

 for them. 



I also read, in a recent English newspaper, a re- 

 port of the mulcting of a labouring man, the fine 

 being likewise, if I remember aright, a shilling, for 

 having a living specimen of that beetle of evil 

 reputation in his possession. If such a law as that 

 brought to bear upon the unhappy rustic were in 

 existence here, it would superadd a large amount to 

 our revenue, inasmuch as few of us are able to dis- 

 possess ourselves of such specimens. 



It is not, however, my intention, in troubling you 

 with this communication, to treat, at any length, on 

 the Colorado Potato-beetle, for your September 

 number (1877) contains an interesting article on the 

 natural history of that garden pest from Mr. Rye, 

 amply sufficient for your purpose at the present time. 

 I say at the present time, for if the insect reaches 

 your shores in any numbers, and if it breeds thereon, 

 you may be glad of hints from those of us who have 

 been overrun by this unconquerable enemy, and who 

 have spent nights in an attempt to devise some plan 

 for its extermination, and days in an endeavour to 

 carry out such plan if regarded as at all feasible. 



The beetle is commonly called the Potato-beetle, 

 but it by no means follows that that all-important 

 esculent is alone subject to its attacks. I think it 

 will be found that, under certain circumstances, it is 

 omnivorous, and that, at all events, it will not succumb 

 to starvation even where potatoes are not grown, 

 provided other vegetables are at hand. 



For instance, where the egg-plant, Solatium melon- 

 gena, is cultivated, my experience induces the belief 

 that the beetle prefers this plant even to the Solatium 

 tuberosum. It also attacks, although less ravenously, 



tomato and pepper plants, and, somewhat singularly, 

 the latter in preference to the former. Inasmuch 

 however, as these three plants are grown only on a 

 small scale, hand-picking, the most effectual method 

 of removing all insect-pests, can be resorted to ; and 

 therefore the beetles do not, as in the case of potatoes, 

 at the period of hybernation, burrow in their neigh- 

 bourhood, and, as a further necessary consequence, 

 do not emerge therefrom in the spring. 



Where hand-picking, from the large space to be 

 traversed, is impracticable, Paris green is the only 

 panacea ; the powder being mixed with water in a 

 pail and sprinkled over the plants by means of a 

 whisk. 



There is, however, a principle of compensation 

 pervading nature, which has a tendency to check 

 the ravages of noxious insects. Thus, with the 

 advent of the Potato-beetles into Canada, there 

 appeared, attendant upon their flight, large quantities 

 of lady-birds, the Coccinella novemnotata, and others, 

 with the object of preying on their eggs. And it 

 should be noted, lest friends and foes be involved in 

 simultaneous destruction, that the eggs of these two 

 insects are very similar in appearance, being much 

 the same in size and shape, of the same colour 

 (deep orange), and deposited alike on the under-sides 

 of the leaves of the plants on which the insects feed. 

 And now we are told of another enemy of the dreaded 

 beetle, — the Lydella doryphora, — to which allusion 

 was recently made at a meeting of the Toronto 

 Entomological Society, by its president, Mr. Brodie, 

 in the following terms: — "It is by far the most 

 reliable and valuable of all the enemies of D. decem- 

 lineata ." 



When the Colorado Beetles make their unwelcome 

 appearance in England — far distant be the day ! — I 

 would recommend the enactment of a law for the 

 preservation of rooks ; for, if I mistake not, those 

 Corvi will be found most useful coadjutors to children 

 in a potato-patch. These beetles are seen more 

 frequently on the wing in the day-time than any other 

 Coleoptera I am acquainted with, and present a some- 

 what brilliant appearance in their flight. 



It may hap that the English climate will prove too 

 damp, and the soil, in winter, too moist for their 

 comfortable hybernation, but these conditions should 

 not altogether be relied on : they will be upon you in 

 time, just as the Scotch thistles have become an 

 "institution" in the United States, and the English 

 Cabbage Butterfly, Pieris rapiv, has become accli- 

 matized in Canada. 



By the way, par parenthlse, while alluding to mi- 

 grations, I noticed a communication from A. Wyles, 

 p. 188, respecting some eggs he "obtained in the 

 village of Roundhay, near Leeds," and which he 

 supposes to be those of the Red-winged Starling. 

 He describes the eggs as being of "a greenish grey, 

 streaked with deep yellowish brown." I have none 

 of these eggs by me at present, but Wilson informs 



