Ravages of Insects on Barley and Turnips. 1 7 1 



sometimes even consists of flat-fish ? This is provided for by 

 the vast extent of the oesophagus or gullet (the tube which 

 conveys the food from the mouth to the stomach), which will 

 admit a fish of incredible size, compared with the thickness 

 of the neck." (From Dr. Drummond's delightful work en- 

 titled Letters to a Young Naturalist on the Study of Nature and 

 Natural Theology.) 



Art. IV. Notice of the Ravages of Insects upon Barley and Tur- 

 nips ; by J. C. Farmer, Esq. : with Observations thereon, and 

 Descriptions and Figures of the Insects, by J. O. Westwood, 

 Esq. F.L.S. &c. 



I send three winged individuals and two pupas of two 

 species of insects {Jigs. 16. and 17.) which do much injury, in 

 their larva state, to the interests of the farmer. Of these spe- 

 cies, therefore, figures and full descriptions, and as detailed an 

 account of their habits as the knowledge of naturalists can sup- 

 ply, should be given, as the most likely means of acquainting 

 the agriculturist with his enemies, and of leading him to 

 the devising of the most effectual method of preventing their 

 ravages. What I know of them is this : — The largest, with 

 long filiform antennae, which appears to me to be an ichneu- 

 mon, was obtained from a pupa which is to be found in the 

 sheathing leaf of the flowering stalk of the common barley. 

 My attention was first directed to this insect, in 1833, by a 

 friend and brother farmer. The spring of this year was very 

 wet, and much of the barley seed was not sown until the latter 

 part of April or beginning of May. The latter month was 

 remarkably warm. Subsequently, many of the plants were 

 observed to be not healthy, putting on the appearance termed 

 " grubbed," the heads [ears or spikes] either not appearing 

 at all (" stuck in the hose"), or appearing so much later than 

 those from the healthy plants as not to ripen at the same 

 time : as the plants of both kinds are cut together, the grain 

 of the later ones is little better than chaff. I examined the 

 root, which the appearance of the plants suggested was the 

 part injured; but I could not discover any cause until I exa- 

 mined the head, the stalk of which contained a furrow, and 

 the head had, in many instances, been half eaten previously to 

 its being protruded from the sheath. The season being ad- 

 vanced, the insect appeared mostly in the form of pupa, in 

 a fold of the sheath ; and, on its being placed under a glass, 

 invariably produced the same insect, which cannot, therefore, 

 be a parasite. This year [1834] I have found a few in some 



