affecting the Clover-crops and Pasture-lands. 5 7 



bj a minute species of Acarus, or mite, which fed upon the 

 Thrijis. 



Sainfoin. 



It is the practice in chalky districts to sow sainfoin, which is 

 kept down for some years ; and when the land is again broken 

 up it is sure to yield a plentiful crop of wireworms. It is cus- 

 tomary to burn the surface after paring- it ; but this does not 

 always pi'eserve the succeeding crop of turnips, &c,, from the 

 ravages of the wireworm. Mr. VV. Leyland Woods, of Chilgrove, 

 near Chichester, informs me that part of a field so treated pro- 

 duced a good piece of Swedish turnips, whilst the rest of the field 

 failed. He observed that Avhen the land was pared in March 

 there was no injury to the crop, but the longer the work was 

 delayed in the spring the less was the hope of retaining the 

 plant. Mr. Woods suggested watering the land with gas-tar- 

 water, but whether this proved an effectual remedy I have not 

 learned. 



Sainfoin is, like most of the other trefoils, the favourite resort 

 of the little weevils to which we have so often alluded in this 

 report. One is named by Mr. Walton 



16. Apion Hedysari. 



The male has been named bv Schbnherr A. livescerum, and the 

 female A. translatitium. 



It inhabits the sainfoin (^Hedijsarum onobri/chis), and is found 

 in chalky districts in Kent, in abundance, from May to October. 

 Mr. Walton describes this Apion as of a 



" plumbeous black colour, glossy, sparingly clothed with fine cinereous hairs ; 

 bead subquadrate ; the vertex adjoining the thorax, smooth ; the frons pos- 

 teriorly slightly convex, closely punctured between the eyes, commonly flat, 

 sometimes depressed, longitudinalh^ rugose-punctate, with one or two ini- 

 puuctate strite, more or less distinct; eyes, prominent ; rostrum, moderately 

 stout, nearly as long as the head and thorax together, curved, a little attenuated 

 in front, rather thickly punctulated through.out, black and sliglitly glossy ; 

 antenna3 medial, rather longer than the rostrum, totally black. Thorax very 

 little longer than broad, snib-cylindrical, broader behind than before, the 

 anterior margin elevated, laterally scarcely dilated, convex above, coarsely and 

 thickly punctured posteriorly with a deep dorsal channel more or less abbre- 

 viated in front, plumbeous, black, and shining. Scutellum, triangular, black; 

 elytra, long-obovate ; the shoulders neai-ly rectangular ; the humeral caUus 

 elevated ; convex above, deeplv punctato-sulcate, the interstices flat, transversely 

 rugTilose, sometimes coriaceous, greenish blue, rarely blue or blue-black ; legs, 

 moderately long, black. ]\Iah', i^-ll Iffffz long. 



" The fe7nale differs in having the head narrower; the rostrum longer, 

 slender, filiform, and shining ; the antenna; inserted behind the middle of the 

 rostrum." * 



Vide Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xiii. p. 49. 



