PIGMY MANGOLD BEETLE. 69 



describes the appearance of our Mangolds, and I could have collected 

 hundreds of Atomarias at each plant." In that year, 1892, I had 

 specimens and descriptions of attack to Mangolds agreeing well with 

 descriptions of the method of infestation, and it seems to me that it is 

 this, that is, the appearance of the injuries, that we must practically 

 rest on for identification, as few but skilled entomologists could give 

 trustworthy identification of beetles of only the twenty-fourth part of 

 an inch in length. 



In 1895 I had notes of this well-marked form of injury being 

 observed by Mr. D. D. Gibb, of Ossemsley Manor Farm, Lymington, 

 Hants, as doing damage to Mangolds; and since then I had no further 

 reports on the subject until in the past year (1898) notes were sent me 

 of similar Mangold attack being observed near Ashburton, Devon, and 

 also near Weston-super-Mare, which I give further on. 



The beetle is described by John Curtis, in his ' Farm Insects,' 

 p. 395, as " elongate-linear, slightly pubescent, varying from black to 

 rust colour ; head broad and triangular ; eyes slightly prominent ; 

 horns chestnut colour, as long as the trunk, slender, eleven-jointed, 

 terminated by a three-jointed club ; trunk depressed and margined ; 

 wing-cases depressed ; wings ample ; six short chestnut-coloured legs ; 

 the feet five-jointed. Length half to two-thirds of a line." 



From comparison of various descriptions of method of attack, it 

 appears that the beetle comes out in May and June (there may also 

 be a second appearance in July and August), and by the middle of 

 June the beetles may be found to have been seriously injuring the 

 coming crop by gnawing little holes in the germinating plants, so 

 that they perish before appearing above ground; or, again, by so 

 gnawing round the top of the plant, or eating the lower part of the 

 leaf-stalks below ground level, that the young plants die off. Other 

 mischief is caused by injury to the tap-root, and if the earth is turned 

 back the wounded parts of the root may be found turned black, and 

 the little beetles found at their destructive work, often in very great 

 numbers. 



Later on, especially in bright sunny weather, the beetles may be found 

 at work on the young leaves, and sometimes causing much mischief ; 

 and on warm evenings the beetles come out of the ground, and rising 

 in the air they pair. 



The following observations of attack, which agree well with the 

 details we possess of the method of infestation of this A. linearis, were 

 sent me in the past season by Mr. C. J. R. Tipper, from the Grammar 

 School, Ashburton, Devon, with beetles accompanying : — 



" I enclose specimens of Mangold plants taken from a field of ours 

 which has entirely gone under. The injury appears principally on 

 the roots, which are gnawed nearly through. We fancied at first it 



