14-0 l November, 



that district." The Vice-Consul adds, that unless efficient measures are adopted it 

 is probable that all agricultural Russia will eventually become the prey of these 

 insects, causing privations hitherto little known in the country. He considers that 

 the subject demands the serious attention of Europe, as Russia supplies so many 

 countries with wheat, and her misfortune may raise the price of American produce. 

 In his sixteenth Report on injurious insects (Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, vol. xviii), Curtis says respecting the larva of the common 

 Anisoplia (Phyllopertha) horticola, that they are often very destructive in pasture- 

 land by consuming the roots of the grass, and that the best remedy is to water the 

 grass in the autumn with a mixture of one-tenth of gas-liquor to nine-tenths of 

 water, which will do no harm to the grass but will extirpate the larvse. "When gas- 

 liquor cannot be obtained strong salt water may be used. In the spring, he says, land 

 affected by these larvae should be broken up, as at that time they are near the surface 

 and become an acceptable treat to rooks, starlings, thrushes, blackbirds, robins, &c, 

 and even sparrows have been known to gorge themselves with these larva? so that 

 they were unable to fly. The perfect beetles eat roses and flowers of hawthorn, and 

 then feed on wheat and oats. But although generally common the insects are not 

 excessively numerous every year, and so it may be with A. austriaca in Russia, and 

 that the damage apprehended from it may be exaggerated. There is no fact relating 

 to insects better known than that a species may be exceedingly abundant generally, 

 in one year, and, contrary to expectation, be very scarce the next, or for several years 

 afterwards. — J. W. Douglas, 8, Beaufort Gardens, Lewisham : August 22nd, 1 880. j 



P.S. — Since the foregoing was in type I am reminded that the ravages ol 

 Anisoplia austriaca in Russia formed the subject of a report by a Sub-Committee 

 of the Entomological Society of London in 1878, which was drawn up for the usei 

 of Her Majesty's Consul at Taganrog, who, in a communication to the Foreigr 

 Office, had adverted to the immense damage done by these and other beetles to th( 

 grain crops in several provinces of Southern Russia. The report of the Sub- 

 Committee (given at length in the Transactions of the Society for 1878 [Proceedings 

 p. 57], and noticed in this Magazine, vol. xv, p. 212), after alluding to the ap- 

 pearance of enormous numbers of A. austriaca in the Banate, Hungary, in 1865 

 — upwards of six millions of beetles being estimated to have been then destroyed 

 by 100 men employed for the purpose — goes on to recommend as remedial measures 

 the rotation of crops, and the preservation of insectivorous birds ; and finally state 

 that experience shows there is no reason to apprehend such a visitation every year 

 —J. W. D. 



Notes on some scarce Coleoptera. — In the August number of this magazine, p 

 69, ante, I recorded the capture of Euplectus punctatus, some years ago, in Sherwooi 

 Forest, by Mr. Matthews ; on August 27th, I took this beetle myself under bark o 

 a rotten tree in its old locality ; I also got a specimen of Micropeplus tesserula, b; 

 sweeping at sunset. I had always supposed this to be a fen insect, but must hav 

 been mistaken. 



Among some beetles sent to me to name by Mr. T. N. Hart-Smith, of Marl 

 borough College, I found a specimen of Hydroporus marginatus : this is, I think, 

 new locality, it seems to be found both near the coast and inland ; it is probabl 

 often thrown away in mistake for H. litura, which it much resembles at first sight 



