INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTg. 187 



the beautiful Papilio Cupido, L. also feeds upon it*. 

 That of the Sphinx Carolina, L. is the great pest of 

 Tobacco ; and it is attacked likewise by the larva of 

 Phalcena Rhexice, Smith'', and by other insects of the 

 names and kind of which I am ignorant. 



Roots are another important object of agriculture, 

 which, however, as to many of them, they may seem 

 to be defended by the earth that covers them, do not 

 escape the attack of insect enemies. — The carrot, which 

 forms a valuable part of the crop of the sand-land farms 

 in Suffolk, is often very much injured, as is also the 

 parsnip, by a small centipede, (S. electrica, L.) and 

 another polypod, {Poli/dcsmns complanatiiSy Latr.) 

 which eat into various labyrinths the upper part of their 

 roots; and they are both sometimes totally destroyed 

 by the maggot of some dipterous insect, probably a 

 Sy/usca. I had an opportunity of noticing this in the 

 month of July, in the year 18 1'?, in the garden of our 

 valued friend the Rev. Revett Sheppard of Offton in 

 Suffolk. The plants appeared many of them in a dying 

 state ; and upon drawing them out of the ground to as- 

 certain tlie cause, these larvai were found with their 

 head and half of their body immersed in the root in an 

 oblique direction, and in many instances they had eaten 

 off the end of it. 



America has made us no present more extensively 

 beneficial, compared with which the mines of Potosi are 

 worthless, than the potato. This invaluable root, which 

 is nov>' so universally cultivated, is often, in this coun- 

 try, considerably injured by the two insects first men- 



* M'Kinnen, 171, Brovi'ne ubi sitpr. Merian, Ins. Sur. 10. 

 *■ Smith's Abbott's l/utcta of Georgia, 199. 



