lxxviii 
JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
viscera of the imago of Tomicus typograplius like Vibrio, described 
by him in his Recherches Anatomiques sur les Coleopteres. 
The Memoirs read were — 
“ Monograph on the Genus Holoptilus. By J. O. Westwood, 
F.L.S. 
The conclusion of Mr. Hope’s Memoir on Edible Insects. 
“ Facts proving that the best remedy for clearing turnip-fields 
is found in the use of poultry for that purpose.” By W. Sells, Esq. 
In a previous communication made to the Society on the 3rd 
October, 1836, Mr. Sells stated that at Compton, in Surrey, a 
turnip-field, of eight and a half acres, was, in the preceding year, 
completely demolished by Athalia cent if olio;. A thunder-storm, 
accompanied by heavy rain, destroyed myriads of them, so that, as 
it was described to him, basketsful might have been swept up on 
following morning. The country people called them the black 
army, and said they had not been seen there for twenty-five years 
before. Mr. Sells then mentioned the occurrence of the negro 
caterpillar at Long Ditton, Ham, and near Guildford, where its 
ravages had been equally severe. 
Mr. Sells then proceeded to state: “ On Sept. 26th I examined 
some turnip-fields near Kingston, and found them suffering from 
the negro caterpillar, though comparatively in a slight degree at 
present. Having taken a boy of about ten years old with me, I 
desired him to pick them off the leaves, and timed him by my 
watch, in order to ascertain the number he collected in a given 
time. I found that he gathered them at the rate of 180 in an 
hour, which being followed up for eight hours only a day, would 
give about 1500, or 9000 a week ; so that ten or a dozen children, 
of from six to ten years old, under the superintendence of a man, 
would collect, even where they are relatively few, as many as 
90,000 or 100,000 a week. I proposed this plan to the farmer 
who rents the land, and he has promised me to act upon it imme- 
diately. I recommended his paying the children so much for a 
given measure of the caterpillar, as at the rate of 6d. a pint, and 
the man 25. a day.” Mr. Sells then observed upon the little be- 
nefit to be derived from the use of tobacco water, quick lime, or 
soot ; brushing the caterpillars off the plants with brushes drawn 
over the fields, with ropes, or ploughing up the parts of the field 
where they first appear in order to prevent their further progress. 
He further observed that where they are numerous they might be 
brushed off into little pans or shovels formed somewhat like a 
heart, but with a deeper notch in front so as to allow them to be 
