174 ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, AND 



Its flight was most wonderful; performed, as it were, by jerks, 

 forming a combination of most extraordinary angles, and with a 

 quickness of action that one would scarcely expect in so clumsy 

 a creature. Nevertheless, I do not think the flight of the locust 

 is sustained enough to cross large tracts of ocean, except under 

 such favourable circumstances as we could scarcely expect to occur 

 at the same period for a succession of years. Of some species of 

 destructive insects, we had more than plenty. The Plant-lice, 

 " Cholera-flies," or Aphides^ were in myriads. The hot dry sea- 

 son proved most favourable to their increase, and during July 

 nearly every plant had its own peculiar species in thousands. 

 Garden vegetables were rendered in many cases unfit for use by 

 their attacks; I saw cabbages, cauliflowers, and turnips, so 

 covered by a pearly-grey species, that their leaves were scarcely 

 discernible. Many of the apple-trees, too, had their bark covered 

 by swarms of "American blight," which, mostly adhering to 

 the underside, gave them the appearance of being fringed with 

 white silk. We also had more than abundance of another de- 

 structive pest, the Turnip Saw-fly (Athalia spinimarum). I noticed 

 the females sitting in the hedge-rows towards the end of June, 

 and soon after heard of the appearance of their larva, the much 

 dreaded " Blacks," In the district east and north-east of New- 

 castle, they were in such abundance as to destroy in succession 

 two or three sowings of turnips. In some cases that came beneath 

 my own observation, the mischief began in small patches, and 

 in different parts of the field ; these patches enlarged slowly for a 

 few days, and then (when the caterpillars had become well 

 grown), so rapidly did they enlarge, that the turnips vanished as 

 if by magic. As this pest generally continues for two or three 

 years in succession, farmers will do well to be on the alert this 

 coming season, and endeavour to nip the mischief in the bud, 

 either by destroying the females as soon as they appear, or by 

 keeping a sharp eye on their turnips, and killing the broods 

 when young, and confined within narrow bounds, by dusting the 

 plants with some poisonous substance that will adhere to them, 

 (jiardencrs use powdered white hellebore for destroying the larva 

 of the Gooseberry Saw-fly, and I see no reason why it should 



