INJURY TO YOUNG TURNIPS BY ROSE CHAFER. 29 
PHYLLOPERTHA HORTICOLA, Garden or Rose Chafer, seriously injurious 
to young crops of field Turnips in Norfolk. 
On June 15th I was favoured by Mr. E. A. Atmore, F.E.S., of 
King’s Lynn, Norfolk, with observations of the great abundance of 
the Garden or Rose Chafer Beetle in that neighbourhood, and that (by 
that day’s post) he had received news of great damage being done by 
this pest to the young Turnips near West Dereham, Norfolk, and that it 
was stated fifty acres sown with Turnip would have to be destroyed by 
- reason of the ravages of this beetle. 
Mr. Atmore, who is a skilled entomologist, as well as an experienced 
observer, naturally thought that there might be some mistake, and 
that it was really the Turnip Flea Beetle (Phyllotreta nemorum) and 
allied species which were the cause of the mischief. Beetles were sent 
him for scientific investigation which had been taken from the fields, 
and these proved to be the Garden Chafers; but to make sure that 
they were the real cause of the damage, and not merely coincident 
with it, Mr. Atmore instituted careful investigation, and found the 
case was as stated. 
On the 10th of October Mr. Atmore was good enough to give me 
the following detailed report, which I give at length as an important 
record of the damage caused by this beetle to a field crop which 
(although the chafer is known to be pretty nearly omnivorous in its 
feeding) has not, so far as I am aware, been previously noted as 
severely attacked by it. 
Mr. Atmore wrote me as follows:—‘‘In answer to your enquiry 
and request for information upon the alleged Phyllopertha attack on 
Turnips, I am now able to state that the attack and subsequent 
complete loss of Turnips upon the large acreage referred to in my 
correspondent’s letter was caused by Phyllopertha horticola, and not by 
species of Phyllotreta. 
‘‘T give here extracts from my correspondent’s letter, Mr. R. C. 
Winearls, of West Dereham, Norfolk, who writes, June 13th, 1895 :—‘ I 
am sending you to-day several specimens in a box. . . . One friend 
of mine who has supplied me with these specimens has had fifty acres 
of growing Turnip-plants entirely eaten off, and they will have to be 
sown again. ‘They are equally rapacious with the leaves of Peach- 
trees, Apple, and even the Peas in the garden they are taking off... . 
Can you tell me their proper name? . . . Please return me three 
or four of these pests, and retain the rest for examination.’ 
‘The beetles were certainly Phyllopertha horticola, Linn., and from 
subsequent enquiries made, I have been able to ascertain that the 
Turnip-plants were entirely eaten off in a day or two by swarms of 
this pest—that Turnips in the neighbourhood of Beechamwell, Mar- 
ham, and Barton Bendish (Norfolk), suffered considerably from their 
