BEET. BEET CAERION BEETLE. 



11 



caterpillars, which are best cleared out of infested land by 

 throwing them out to alternate wet and cold. 



No special means of getting rid of this attack appear to 

 have been recorded, but the measures of treatment suitable 

 for clearing " Surface-caterpillars " (see Index) would be 

 applicable to these grubs also. 



BEET. 



Beet Carrion Beetle. Silpha opaca, Linn. 



1 and 2, young and full-grown larvte ; 3 and 4, larvfe magnified ; 5, female 

 beetle flying ; 6, male beetle, slightly magnified. 



The Beet Carrion Beetle is very common, and is often to 

 be found in small carcases, as dead birds, rabbits, garbage, 

 &c. ; and until rather more than forty years ago it does not 

 appear to have been known that its maggot was at times a 

 vegetable feeder. About that date it was first observed as 

 feeding on Beet-leaves in France, and from this circumstance — 

 namely its double method of feeding — it takes its common 

 name of the Beet Carrion Beetle. Since then it has been re- 

 corded as doing harm to Mangolds in Ireland, and in 1884 

 specimens were sent to me from Magen_y, Co. Clare, of this 

 beetle, which was then eating away the Mangold-leaves down 

 to the stems. 



Up to 1888, however (though the beetle is common here), we 

 have no records, as far as I know, of either this Beet Carrion 

 Beetle or its maggot being a crop-pest in England. 



I had then observations of the presence of this attack sent 

 me, with specimens accompanying, from Kuyton Towers, near 

 Shrewsbury, where they were reported as having eaten about 



