Observaiio?is on Tnsecis ojffecling the Timiiii Croj^s. 317 



what trian2:ular, third bilobed, fourth slender and clavate, fur- 

 nished with two claws : If line long, including the rostrum 

 (fi^?. 32). 



In the ' Introduction to Entomology ' it is stated by one of the 

 learned authors of that interesting and invaluable work that a 

 small Weevil has been bred by him from the knobs or galls on 

 the roots of the Kedlock {Sinapis arvensis)."^ This little Beetle 

 is similar in form and nearly related to the foregoing insect, but 

 it is infinitely smaller, and has been named bv Marsham 



10*. Curculio (Ceutorhynchus) contractus. It is black with a 

 coppery tinge ; the head and thorax are coarsely punctured ; the 

 elytra are generally green, sometimes inclining to blue, rarely 

 blackish; they have punctured striae down each, with lines of 

 minute hairs between them, and the apex is tuberculated : length 

 from J to 1 line. 



This little Weevil in the perfect or beetle state destroys the 

 young turnips by puncturing the leaves, as I am informed by Dr. 

 J. W. Calvert, who thus confirms the statement in the ' Intro- 

 duction to Entomology,'! where it is said that almost as much 

 damage is sometimes occasioned by this little Weevil as by the 

 Turnip-fly (Altica Nemoriim) ; and Dr. Fleming, of Flisk, also 

 bears testimony to the injury this Curculio does to the turnip- 

 crops. 



As all these weevils are so sensitive that they fall down, if only 

 approached suddenly, from the flov/ers or leaves on which they 

 are feeding, they may be easily collected, when they abound in the 

 turnip-flowers left for seed, by shaking the stalks over a bag-net 

 or cloth; but as they immediately unfold their legs and begin to 

 run away after the shock is over, the contents thus collected must 

 be swept into a pail of lime and water or urine until they can be 

 removed and destroyed by pouring boiling water over them, for, 

 as their horny jackets are very hard, they are not easily killed by 

 stamping upon them. 



Cetonia aurata, the Green Rose-chafer. 



Another large and beautiful beetle, whose larvse are exceedingly 

 injurious in gardens and nurseries, J sometimes does great mis- 

 chief the beginning of May to the turnips then in flov/er and intended 

 for seed by destroying the anthers, by which means the flowers prove 

 abortive; and as these beetles often breed amongst strawberry- 

 beds, and flrst attack their flowers, it is not safe to have turnips 

 to be reserved for seed cultivated in a garden or in the vicinity of 

 one where that fruit is grown, for the beetles fly well, especially 



* Vide Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 450. t Ibid., vol. i. p. 185. 



% Gardeners' Chronicle for 1841, p. 452. 



