NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 2S7 



attacks the leaves of the horseradish when about eight or ten 

 inches in height, and if not speedily destroyed it will in a verj' 

 short time sweep over a large tract of land, leaving nothing of the 

 leaf, but the stalk standing upright, and looking like a dried-up 

 lot of sticks, the result being that the plant becomes weakened 

 and graduallj^ dies, and this on land where there is no water near, 

 unless, indeed, in the drain-pipes underneath the surface. I have 

 seen the leaves literally black with this obnoxious insect ; and as 

 gas lime, slacked lime, soot, salt, and many other special fertilisers 

 do not seem to make any impression on it, the only remedy 

 appears to be fire ; at least this is my experience, having during 

 that time had to burn some acres of land to get rid of the pest. 

 In the year. 1878, on about two acres of land at West Ham, which 

 we had to burn, it was accompanied by Thyamis ochroleuca, Marsh, 

 in almost as great abundance as the Plicsdoii itself. It is also very 

 destructive to radishes when in the seed-leaf, clearing the ground 

 as it goes, unless the weather haj)pens to be ver}^ showery, and 

 thus helping the plant into the rough leaf, in which state it seems 

 to defy its enemies. I should say this appears to be the small 

 form, and I think less likely to be found near water than the 

 species with callosities Dr. Power speaks of. I do not find 

 mention of this insect in Miss Ormerod's valuable 'Manual of 

 Injurious Insects;' this is the more remarkable, as she has 

 given so great attention to insects more particularly injurious to 

 agriculturists. — T. R. Billups ; 4, Swiss Villas, Coplestone Road, 

 Peckham. 



[If Mr. Billups will refer to the article in the ' Entomologist ' 

 (Entom. xiv. 187), we think he will find that there is no real 

 discrepancy between his own account and the statement of 

 Mr. Fitch and Dr. Power ; but the difficulty seems to lie in a 

 misapprehension of the synonymy as there stated. Ph(edoJi 

 hetulce of Sharp's Cat. is not the insect Mr. Billups alludes to, 

 but is the larger one with callosities on the shoulders, called 

 P. armoracia; in Wat. Cat., and stated to be less common, but 

 perhaps more aquatic. The species which Mr. Billups means to 

 speak of is the small round one, the P. hetulce of Wat. Cat., but 

 called by Dr. Sharp P. cochlearicB, and wdiich, in the article 

 alluded to, is stated to be " more common, less aquatic, and to 

 have been seen utterly destroying a crop of horseradish in a 

 garden ;" agreeing entirely with what Mr. Billups says. — Ed.] 



