70 MANGOLDS. 



must be Wireworm, but found none of those marauders, but, instead, 

 hundreds of tiny beetles (specimens of which I enclose herewith). 

 Round every root we found the earth swarming, and also found them 

 in the lower parts of the stem, and in the sears on the damaged 

 roots."— (C. J. R. T.) 



On June 3rd Mr. James Muir (County Instructor in Agriculture), 

 writing from South Haven, Beach Road, Weston-super-Mare, forwarded 

 me the following observations, with specimens of A. linearis (then 

 pairing) sent accompanying, and also a small Mangold plant with the 

 long root injured. Mr. Muir observed that he wrote about an insect 

 attack which had lately been brought under his notice : — 



" A farmer in this neighbourhood, — Mr. Hawkings, at Northam 

 Farm, Berrow, — wrote me that his Mangolds were dying off in a patch 

 where they also failed last year. (Having little arable land, he grows 

 Mangolds year after year on the same land.) On visiting the field, I 

 found that a large patch had been entirely destroyed, and that it was 

 steadily spreading. The plants came up quite well, but afterwards 

 appeared to wither and die, and at, or a little below, the surface of 

 the ground looked as if they had been bitten. Enclosed I send you a 

 tube containing an affected plant and several specimens of a small 

 beetle, which I found in considerable numbers in the soil close to 

 every dying plant that I examined." 



Mr. Muir expressed his wish for information as to the nature of 

 the attack, and how to stop it then, and to prevent its recurrence, and 

 added further : — 



" I should perhaps add that the manure used for the crop was 

 cow-dung applied in the autumn, and salt, superphosphate, and nitrate 

 of soda before drilling. Also that a few Cabbage sown with the 

 Mangolds are unaffected by the attack." — (J. M.) 



In both of the above accounts the point of the great numbers of 

 these excessively small beetles which were observed round the attacked 

 plants should be noticed, as this is a characteristic of the infestation, 

 even (as Prof. Harker wrote me from the Royal Agricultural College) 

 to being present by "myriads " ; and this enormous presence not only 

 accounts for the serious failure of the young crop, but also is apt to 

 set observers astray, for the shape of the insects not being clearly 

 noticeable without a magnifying-glass, the infestation may be simply 

 considered to be a visitation of ants. 



We have no notes of observation of where the eggs are laid, or on 

 what the maggots feed. Conjecturally, they feed below ground, for, 

 minute as they must be, still, such a quantity of maggots as there 

 must be to turn presently to such vast numbers of beetles could not 

 fail to cause observable mischief to the young leafage, although they 

 themselves may be hardly observable. 



