THE MANGOLD-FLY. 9 



blistered, and eventually destroyed, through the small larva of a 

 dipterous fly feeding on the pulp between their cuticle. Whole 

 fields have been completely scorched up, as it were, from their 

 attack. 



The mangold-fly — Antliomyia (CJiortophila) hetce—v/&s first 

 brought into notice by Curtis. He described the male in the 

 part of the ' Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society ' published 

 in December, 1847, from specimens received from Mr. F. J. 

 Graham, of Cranford, who related its economy as observed in 

 Surrey. Until this year I am aware of but one other recorded 

 occurrence — at Castlewellan, Ireland. On the Continent its 

 injurious effects have been repeatedly observed in Germany 

 (Scholtz, Nordlinger, Taschenberg, Fichtner, and Farsky) ; also 

 in Sweden by Holmgren. 



In Mr. H. J. Little's report on the " Cumberland and West- 

 moreland Farm-prize Competition, 1880," in the just published 

 part of R. Agric. Soc. Eng. Journal, we now read : — " Part of the 

 peat-land was planted with mangolds, but, like all the crops of that 

 root in this country, they were very indifferent, having suffered 

 from the maggot which seems to infest the North of England. 

 This creature settles in the leaves, eats out their ribs, and entirely 

 prevents growth. We did not find a piece free from its ravages 

 in the two counties" (1. c. xvi. 549). This is on the fen-like soil of 

 Mr. Donald's Sanden House Farm, near the shore of the Solway 

 Firth. In writing of Mr. Kitchen's heavy land, upland. Farm, 

 near Calthwaite, in central Cumberland, which is over 500 feet 

 above sea-level, Mr. Little again says : — " A small quantity of 

 long red mangolds are taken, and, like all the rest in this county, 

 they were affected with the grub in the leaf, before alluded to." 

 In 1880 there were 1624 acres of mangold grown in these two 

 counties, and this high authority says all were infested. 



Many of the short crop reports in our agricultural and local 

 papers have referred to this new pest; and I have heard of it 

 from correspondents in Cheshire, Yorks, Notts, Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Essex, Herts, and Salop. The following practical references are 

 from the pages of the ' Chamber of Agriculture Journal.' Mr. 

 W. T. Carrington, of Croxden Abbey, Uttoxeter (North Stafford), 

 says, " Mangolds are poor and irregular generally ; the leaves 

 are now (July 12th) much pestered by a maggot." J., writing 

 from North Shropshire, in the same number, says, " Mangolds 



c 



