INiSIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. ISl 



committed sucli ravages in many provinces of Sweden^ 

 that the meadows became quite white and dry as if a 

 fire had passed over them ^. This destructive insect, 

 though found in this country, is luckily scarce amongst 

 us ; but our northern neighbours appear occasionally 

 to have suffered greatly from' it. In 1759, and again 

 ina802, the high sheep farms inTweedale were dread- 

 fully infested by a caterpillar, which was probably the 

 larva of this moth : spots of a mile square were totally 

 covered by tliem, and the grass devoured to the root^. 



IVIost of the insects I have hitherto mentioned at- 

 tack our crops partially, confining themselves to one or 

 two kinds only ; but there are some species which ex- 

 tend their ravages indilTerently to alL Of this de- 

 scription is the Phalcvna frumenlaUs^ L., which moth, 

 Pallas tells us, is an almost universal pest in the go- 

 vernment of Kasan in Russia, often eating the greater 

 part of the spring corn to the roof. To this we are 

 fortunately strangers ; but another, well known by the 

 name of the wire-worm, causes annually a large dimi- 

 nution of the produce of our fields, destroying indiscri- 

 iuinately wheat, rye, oats, and grass "^o This insect, 

 which has its name apparently from its slender form, 

 and uncommon hardness and toughness, is tlie grub of 

 a beetle termed by Linne Elater lineafus, but by Bier- 

 kander, to whom we are indebted for its history, E. Se- 

 ^etis'', which name is now generally adopted. The in- 

 genious Mr. Paul, of Starston in Norfolk, (well known 



* De Gecr, ii. 311. *» Farmer's Mag. iii. 487. 



' PaHas's Travels in SoitiJi Russia, i. 30. ^ Plate XVIII. Fig. 4. 



* Marsham in Communicniions to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412. 

 Plate xviii. fg. 4, and Lin>u Trans, b. 60. 



