8*2 Short /SujJiJiiari/ of our Knoirlaltjc of the trlt-Jiij 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Frit-Hy damage has been recorded from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 

 Finland, practically all Russia, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Holland, 

 France, and the British Isles; while attacks by the larvae of Oscinids on 

 cereal crops (though the species of Oscinis attacking are supposed to 

 be different) have been recorded from Canada (Criddle, 1916) and 

 Minnesota, U.S.A. (Washburn, 1905). 



Distribution in England and Wales. 



Roughly speaking, the species is very troublesome in the whole of 

 the south of England from Cornwall to Kent, in the Eastern Counties 

 (except in the Fen District), and up through the counties between Wales 

 and the Midlands to Lancashire and Yorkshire, with a few records 

 from Northumberland. It appears to be especially destructive in the 

 counties bordering on the Thames and the Severn, and in Hampshire, 

 Dorset, E. Devon, and the Isle of Wight. In Wales it has been noted 

 as a pest from counties on the English border such as Glamorgan, 

 Radnorshire and Flintshire, and it has been recorded as doing damage 

 in Ireland and Scotland. 



EXTENT OF DAIVIAGE. 



The following few quotations from published and unpublished 

 correspondents' reports will give some idea of the damage that may be 

 caused hy frit attacks. 



"A field planted in the autumn with two bushels per acre, so entirely eaten tlie 

 following spring as not to have left one healthj' plant in a yard. They have robbed 

 me of about fifteen bushels per acre on nearly fifty acres of fallow wheat." (Creese, 

 Teddington near Tewkesbury, vide Ormerod, Report for 1881.) 



"Nothing could have been more luxuriant than our Oat-crop at an early stage, 

 but at pi'csent the whole aspect has changed, the fields being one mass of patches, 

 getting worse and worse daily." (Bulteelj Ivybridge, S. Devon, vide Ormerod, Report 

 for 1888.) 



"The crop [of oats] came up and looked well until the latter part of May, what 

 promised to be a heavy crop will only be a third." (Stick, St Columb, Cornwall, 

 vide Ormerod, Report for 1888.) 



"A very large area [of oatsj in this part of the country has suffered." "The crop 

 is practically destroyed except for hay." "The damage is quite appalling — 90% of 

 crop gone." (INIcCraeken, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, tide Ormerod. 

 Report for 1888.) 



Letter fi-om a Oloucestcrshirc fanner in l!M7: "Two of the [last] ten years I lost 

 the entire crop, and the icmaining cigiit i losf more (liaii half, entirely through 



