Campontia eruciformis. 179 



[A writer in the Gardener's Magazine, viii. 498., who has 

 referred the origin of M fingers and toes " to the attacks of 

 Nedyus contractus Stephens, remarked that " its attack can 

 only be prevented by making the plant offensive to the parent 

 fly [weevil] ; and this, it has been lately discovered, can be 

 done by incorporating with the soil soapboilers' waste, or any 

 other substance of similar alkaline quality. Besides par- 

 tridges preying on the larvae, I have often seen magpies, 

 crows, and, if I mistake not, even rooks, doing this useful 

 service." Whatever may be the species of the insect which 

 causes the " fingers and toes," the recipe cited may be found 

 to have a preventive effect : therefore we have given it. In 

 opposition to the preceding ascription of the origin of " fin- 

 gers and toes " to the attacks of insects of the weevil tribe, 

 we present, from the Gardener' 's Magazine, ix. 504., some 

 observations by the late A. H. Haworth, Esq. : — " It is 

 presumed that not any Curculionidae [weevil tribe], nor even 

 any coleopterous insect, causes the vegetable disease called 

 ' fingers and toes/ This is one of contraction: it is more 

 probably the work of Tenthredinidae [the sawfly tribe]. I 

 have somewhere observed, in print, that lacerations on the 

 green or growing parts of vegetables usually enlarge them- 

 selves, as is well observed on pin-scratched gourds, &c. The 

 diseases of contraction, or those diverting the sap, &c, seem 

 to be effected by haustellated insects. Marl is the great cure 

 for ' fingers and toes : ' and Norfolk marl is said to be the 

 best/'] 



Art. V. Illustrations in British Zoology. By George John- 

 ston, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin 

 burgh. 



31. Campontia eruciformis {Jig. 18.) Johnston, in Zoological 

 Journal, iii. 325. 



Description. — Body 4 lines long, cylindrical, of twelve 

 subequal segments (exclusive of the head), of a clear faint 

 water green colour, smooth, and somewhat corneous. Head 

 distinct, brown, subquadrate, sparingly ciliate on the margins. 

 Eyes two, black, remote, not marginal, placed towards the 

 front. Antennae two, distant, very short, inarticulate, seta- 

 ceous, originating in the front margin. Mouth with a pair 

 of exsertile corneous brown hooked mandibles, which, when in 

 motion, it is seen incessantly to protrude and retract; no 

 proboscis. On the front and ventral margin of the first seg- 

 ment are two short unjointed legs, armed with a circle of 

 retractile claws ; and the last segment is furnished, near its 



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