THE HEATHER BEETLE 419 



it might be the larva of the heather beetle, so thought I would forward them 

 to you for examination." [Contents of box were nine larvas and twelve pupae 

 of LochrncBa.l 



(bb) " Here we had very little signs of the insect last year, but this year it is 

 over-running the moor and doing great damage. The insect made its appearance 

 in beetle form in May, and its grubs about three weeks or a month ago, and is now 

 to be found in hundreds on every bit of ' rusty ' and ' so-called frosted ' heather. 

 The grub appears to appreciate [? prefer] young to old heather." 



(cc) " From what I saw . . . about six weeks ago, I have no doubt you 

 are correct as to ' frosted ' heather. There are great areas and many patches 

 of this brown, withered heather on the moor, and there was a whole colony 

 ■of the larvae at the roots of every such patch we looked at." 



(dd) "My keeper has had two days on the moor, searching for the larvae 

 or pupae of the heather beetle, and he can find none. ... I am sorry the 

 search was not successful ; but the information that the larvas disappears between 

 September 5th and November 5th amounts to something." 



(ee) " On the . . . moors there were, in places, many patches of the so-called 

 frosted heather — heather which had grown well up to a certain point, perhaps 

 four to six years, and then without apparent rhyme or reason lost its sap and 

 turned brown and withered before the flowering season. It looked very much 

 like what heather might be expected to appear after a severe and late frost in 

 May, but it was quite evident that atmospheric conditions (wind or temperature) 

 liad nothing to do with the result, as the ' frosted ' patch ended quite suddenly 

 and was abruptly framed in perfectly sound healthy heather, which must have 

 teen exposed to exactly the same external conditions as the ' frosted ' heather. 

 The keeper and I had many discussions over the cause of the spoilt heather, 

 and we only agreed on one point, namely, that frost had nothing to do with 

 the disease. I suggested a vegetable parasite, and he had views on improper burn- 

 ing, and there we left the matter (both of us being wide of the mark as it turned 

 out). On ... .at the time I am speaking of, there was a very considerable 

 quantity of the ' frosted ' heather ; I couldn't, even very roughly, give the 

 acreage, but over the whole ground it must have mounted up to a big total, 

 probably not much less than 750-1,000 acres. The 'frosted' heather is entirely 

 useless for food, neither cattle nor sheep nor game will touch it so far as 1 know ; 

 therefore in this particular year the wretched and insignificant little beetle 

 destroyed the agricultural and sporting value of (?) 1,000 acres on one moderate- 



