314 Observailons on Insects affecting the TiirnijJ Crops. 



which are concealed under ledges of ^Yalls, paling, doors, window- 

 sills, on bushes in hedg;es, on the trunks of trees. Sec, and crush 

 them, but on no account to destroy the dark-brown coloured ones, 

 which are full of the parasitic Ptcromali : as the spring advances, 

 examine the leaves and bruise the clusters of eggs of the largest 

 species, which are as conspicuous as a mass of fly blows ; at the 

 same time a ring or bag-net may be used to catch the butterflies ; 

 and when the caterpillars are large enough to be seen, hand- 

 picking is neither difficult nor laborious : when they attack the 

 seed-crops, shaking the stems might prove useful, provided troops 

 of ducks were to follow and pick up the caterpillars ; or dusting 

 the plants with hellebore-powder, fresh and genuine, would be 

 worth a trial, as it is very effective in some instances.* After 

 what has been stated, it is almost needless to say that the little 

 yellow cocoons observed upon the jolants and leaves, and often 

 surrounding the caterpillars, ought never to be destroyed, as they 

 contain a parasite which proves the cultivator's greatest friend 

 and the most active scourge of the Turnip and Cabbage Cater- 

 pillars. 



Even the obnoxious and persecuted wasp assists in the destruc- 

 tion of other insects, upon which it preys, making some amends 

 for robbing our orchards. When at the end of summer the 

 sweet thistle-flowers attract a variety of butterflies and swarms of 

 insects, the wasps are busily employed in capturing them, which 

 they do very skilfully. I have many times seen them carry off 

 large flies from the ivy-flowers, and even the White Butterflies 

 are not too large to deter the wasps from attacking them : the 

 species called P. Hcqjcv it seems is most subject to their assaults, 

 and their mode of securing this Butterfly is very curious as re- 

 lated by Mr. Newport in the ' Entomological Transactions,' 



On iDreaking off some of the turnip-leaves close to the crown 

 last October, I found enclosed in the stem (fig. 21) two cater- 

 pillars nearly 7V an inch long, of a whitish colour, with a nut-brown 

 head (fig. 22) ; they were evidently the larvae of some small moth, 

 but they both died. 



ChRYSOMELA BETULiE? 



I also discovered in July, on the backs of some turnip-leaves, 

 many small oval eggs (fig. 23), so deeply imbedded in the pulpy 

 substance, that in many instances the cuticle had burst on the 

 upper side, so that the eggs, which were of a bright ochraceous 

 colour, were perfectly visible; the surrounding margins of the 

 leaf were dried and of a dark- brown colour. There were mul- 



* Mr. Lymburn cleared a few hundreds of gooseberry-bushes from 

 caterpillars, at the expense of Is. 3d. for hellebore-powder, aud a morning's 

 work of two men.— Garde /2ers' Chron., Jan. 1st, 1842, p. 7. 



