202 TUKNIPS. 



and brown above, with darker spots ; all the other rmgs have 

 four little tubercles on the back of each, and several on the 

 sides, each tubercle having a short hair growing out of it. 

 The caterpillar has three pairs of claw-feet, four pairs of 

 sucker-feet, and one pair at the end of the tail ; it is flattish 

 and has little power of holding on with its feet, so that it 

 readily falls when the plant is shaken. When full-fed it forms 

 a cell in the earth in which it changes to a rust-coloured 

 chrysalis, from which the moth comes out in June of the fol- 

 lowing year, or sometimes a little earlier. 



The moth is of a clay colour, marked as figured above ; the 

 spot behind the head is black ; the upper wings are dark 

 towards the front edge ; the under wings in the male are 

 white, with the upper margin and nerves brownish ; in the 

 female the under wings are dark brown.* 



The '* Surface Caterpillars " lie concealed during the day, 

 rolled up under the root-leaves of the food-plant, or beneath 

 clods or stones, or beneath the surface of the earth, or in any 

 available rubbish. They come out in the evening and feed 

 during the night, passing from one plant to another and 

 gnawing the leaves off at the crown, so as to do far more mis- 

 chief than those that only eat straightforwards at one spot. 



On the Continent these surface caterpillars, besides their 

 ravages on root and other crops as mentioned above, are par- 

 ticularly hurtful to roots of Grass or Wheat, or Corn 

 generally, — so much so that the kind known with us as the 

 " Turnip Moth " is there known as the "Winter Corn Moth." 



Prevention and Eemedies. — These are most difficult to 

 find, for the presence of the caterpillars is only known of by 

 the mischief which they have done, and it appears almost 

 impossible to injure them by waterings or fluid dressings, as 

 the poison soon loses its power in sinking through the earth, 

 and also the grub can move away from the disagreeable 

 application. 



In August of 1885, Lt.-Col. G. Coussmaker, of Westwood, 

 Guildford, whose Swedes were then severely infested by 

 surface caterpillars, at my suggestion tried the effect of soft- 

 soap and kerosine on these Dart or Turnip Moth caterpillars, 

 and reported thereon as follows : — 



* The above descriptions of the two kinds of surface caterpillars and their 

 respective moths are almost entirely taken from Curtis's ' Farm Insects ' ; but 

 practically, from differences of condition, age, and food, it is very difficult to 

 distinguish certainly between them; and it may be also observed that when, 

 for want of vegetable food, one (as is not unusual in captivity) eats another, I 

 have found the appearance of the eater remarkably thriving, but at the same 

 time I have never found that the cater of his brethren was attacked by the 

 survivors. — Ed. 



