F. K. Petherbridge i:^{> 



This year a similar attack was noticed at the Rothainsted Experi- 

 mental Station by Mr A. W. Rymer Roberts, who writes as follows : 

 "On one of the fields at the Rothamsted Experimental Station I noticed 

 dnring the course of last May considerable damage done by Phyllotrela 

 vittula to young barley of three or four inches in height. The field had 

 been ploughed out of ley the previous winter, and though not ordinarily 

 one of the experimental fields, had this year crops of various kinds in 

 strips. In addition to the barley, spring-sown oats on the next strip 

 were also afiected, though not so severely as the barley. 



"The beetles usually seemed to attack the upper surface of the 

 leaf first, eating through the parenchyma and leaving only the epi- 

 dermis of the under surface. The holes so made, as you will see by 

 the photograph I am sending, are in general oval, running between 

 the ribs of the leaves, as Baranov describes ; only in our case the pest 

 was not bad enough to render the holes confluent, nor did I notice that 

 plants were killed by it. 



" The beetles disappeared about the end of the month, and I did not 

 notice a second brood, though I may have overlooked them owing to 

 pressure of other work. 



"Though the damage done was not very material in permanent 

 injury to the crop, in view of the seriousness of the attacks on spring- 

 sown corn in Russia, it will be well to watch for any extension." 



It will be noticed that the attack at Warminster was earlier than 

 that at Rothamsted which occurred at about the same time as that of 

 Baranov's. The attack in both cases occurred when the plants were 

 very young, and therefore at a time when the plant is most likely to 

 receive a severe check. 



As this pest is so widely spread on the Continent, and has occurred 

 at such widely separated places as Rothamsted and Warminster (where 

 attacks would not easily be overlooked) it is possible that the damage 

 done by this pest in other parts of England may have escaped notice. 



F. R. PETHERBRIDGE. 



School of Agbiculture, Cambridge 

 December 1916. 



