TRIFID^. . 343 



the plants remained, and the fields were completely bare. 

 Many proprietors tried to raise a fresh crop of buckwheat on 

 the same ground, and partially succeeded. In the middle of 

 the month of July several very heavy showers fell, and all 

 the caterpillars disappeared. Apparently it was not so much 

 this sudden change in the weather as the period of their 

 transformation into the pupa state having arrived, and the 

 sudden cessation of their activity, that caused their sudden 

 disappearance. Although painfully sensitive to the loss they 

 had sustained, the farmers consoled themselves, when they 

 saw the insect disappear, with the hope that it would not 

 return, as until that period it had been unknown among them. 

 In September the winter grain was sown as usual. A great 

 deal of rain having followed this sowing the growth of the 

 corn was greatly accelerated, and by the end of September 

 the fields were rich in future promise, when all at once a second 

 generation of these mischievous insects, which three months 

 before had robbed the farmer of the greater part of his buck- 

 wheat crop, now threatened him with the more important 

 loss of his bread-corn. The mischief spread with the same 

 rapidity in the rye-fields as it had done in the buckwheat ; 

 and in the space of a few days very considerable portions 

 were so entirely laid waste that not a trace was left of the 

 young plants which had sprung up very thickly from the seed. 

 Some farmers resolved to sow their fields a second time with 

 rye, but those who attempted this too soon experienced only 

 a repetition of their loss. I had the bare corn-fields again 

 sown with rye about the last week in October. In 

 ploughing, the caterpillars were found numerous and alive in 

 the furrows, but they had retired rather deeper into the earth 

 than usual and appeared less lively and active. A number of 

 ravens, crows, and daws, the well-known autumnal birds, 

 which arrived exactly at this period, and which were now 

 looked upon as welcome guests, enjoyed a rich treat in these 

 well-fed insects, and satisfied at least in some degree the 

 wishes of the farmer by their partial destruction of them." 



