12 BEET. 



three acres of Mangolds nearly bare, taking the plants as 

 soon as they appeared above ground ; also from Cwmbran, 

 near Newport, Mon., " destroying what promised to be a very 

 fair crop of Mangolds " ; and specimens of the Beet Carrion 

 grub were also sent from Wiscombe Park, Honiton, Devon, 

 with the intimation that it was doing a good deal of damage 

 to Mangolds of some farmers near. But why the attack 

 came in 1888, or why it did not recur, or was not reported as 

 recurring, in the following year, we have no evidence to show. 



The grubs are much like Wood-Lice in shape, and from 

 about a third to half an inch or more in length when full- 

 grown. The largest specimen which I have myself seen was 

 about five-eighths of an inch long ; the three rings or 

 segments next to the head are rounded at the sides, but in 

 the other segments they are sharp, so as to give the sides of 

 the grub a saw-like appearance, and the tail segment has a 

 sharp spine on each side. These grubs are black and shiny, 

 sometimes wnth a little yellow at the front edge of the 

 segment. When full-fed (which in the instances noted was 

 about the end of June) the grubs bury themselves and form 

 cells at the depth of three or four inches below the surface of 

 the earth, in which they turn to pupse, and from these the 

 beetle has been seen to come up in about the space of a 

 fortnight or three weeks. 



These Beet " Carrion " Beetles, as they are called, from the 

 mixed nature of their food, are flatfish, of the shape figured 

 (see page 11) at " 5 " and " 6," about five lines long, brown- 

 black, with a tawny down which easily rubs off, when the 

 beetle appears as black (except the tip of the abdomen, which 

 is dull red) and pitted all over. The eyes are large and oval, 

 the horns club-shaped. The body behind the head is twice 

 its width, and somewhat oval. The wing-cases are very flat, 

 and turned up at the outer edge. Each w^ing-case has three 

 sharp ridges running along it, the middle and outer ridge 

 having a raised lump between them. The tip of the abdomen 

 is dull red. 



These beetles have large wings folded under the wing-cases. 

 They may be found during winter or early in the spring 

 sheltering under stones, or clods, or in moss or rotten wood, 

 &c., and are common in April in dead animals. 



Pkevention and Eemedies. — In common circumstances the 

 eggs are laid in putrid matter, but where, or in what, the eggs 

 are laid from w^hich the grubs hatch that attack the Mangolds, 

 does not appear to have been recorded. It may be under 

 decaying matter in the field ; the S. atrata, Linn., a black 

 shiny species of which the grubs also feed at times on 



