146 Food-plants 



healthy heather turns brown and withered, much as though it had 

 been nipped by a severe frost. But a further inspection will show 

 that this result could not be due to either wind or frost, for the heather 

 surrounding the rotten area, which must have been subjected to 

 exactly the same climatic conditions, is green and healthy. It is 

 not due to age or omission to burn, for the disease may appear in 

 heather of any age, and as a matter of fact is least common in very 

 old, rank heather. As far as I am aware, the cause of this disease 

 remained a mystery until the appearance of Mr. Grimshaw's paper, 

 to which I have already referred, published in the " Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History " for 1898, and I do not know that even now his 

 conclusions are universally accepted. Mr. Grimshaw is on the 

 entomological staff of the Natural History department of the Royal 

 Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. He is also the entomologist, or one 

 of the entomologists, on the Grouse disease inquiry, and will be 

 responsible for the twenty-second chapter of the report of the 

 committee, when the long-expected volume appears. This chapter is 

 devoted to the life-history of the heather-beetle and the damage it 

 causes. Mr. Grimshaw may, therefore, be considered a very high 

 authority on this subject to which he has devoted so much attention 

 The " Report of the Committee " has not yet issued from the press, 

 so I do not know his latest views, but I will summarize very briefly 

 his original paper of 1898. 



In August. 1897, Mr Grimshaw received from a correspondent 

 in Ayrshire a root of heather infested with a small whitish grub. 

 The correspondent further stated that this grub had destroyed 

 many acres of good young heather in his district, causing the shoots 

 to become quite withered and brown. As the material sent was 

 rather scant\-, Mr. Grimshaw applied for more, and received three 

 large patches cut from the moor, two of them badly " frosted " 

 and the third unaffected. From the two infested pieces he picked 

 every day for a week or so, freshly emerged specimens which he 

 identified as Lochmaa suiiiralis ; and, as a vast number of examples 

 of this insect, in all stages between that of the full-grown larva 

 and the perfect insect, were found buried amongst the roots of the 

 heather, he was enabled satisfactorily to refer the damage to this 

 species. 



If we could total up the acreage of this " frosted " heather 

 over the whole of Scotland, we should run into very large figures, 

 certainly thousands of acres, all apparently the work of this pernicious 

 little beetle. 



It is unlikelv that the Black-game can keep pace witli them, 

 but their efforts in that direction must be highly beneficial, and 

 farmers and game-preservers alike should shower blessings on their 

 heads. 



Next to the heather, perhaps the most important food plant 

 is the Blaeberry {Vaccinium myrtillus), known in England as the 

 Bilberry or Whortleberry. It is widely distributed on the moors — 



