DIAJIOND-BACK MOTH. 153 



caterpillars of tlie Diamond-back Moth, with the observations : — " They 

 are taken from a field near here on my own shooting, but this pro- 

 perty has not been much affected, and as rain has at last come (after 

 months of drought) I don't think the crops will suffer. There is a farm 

 some ten miles from here where, I understand, very great damage has 

 been done, acres of Turnips being totally cleared off." 



On the 25th of August, Mr. Scot Skirving kindly forwarded to me 

 two letters written to Mr. J. S. Ballingal, of Eallabus, Islay, in reply to 

 his inquiries regarding appearance of the pest, which two communi- 

 cations I append below. 



Mr. Thos. Fraser, writing from Ardfin, Island of Jura, by Greenock, 

 N.B., communicated as follows regarding Diamond-back Moth or 

 caterpillar: — "It came on our Turnips (at least we observed it) the 

 last days of July. For the first few days we were a little anxious. 

 The crop was well forward, and as soon as the rain and cool weather 

 came the pest grew weaker, so much so that we do not apprehend any 

 serious damage from it for this season. I observe that the moth is 

 decaying or dying in the first stage now. No doubt the result of the 

 heavy rain we had recently." 



Islay and Jura are islands of the Inner Hebrides, Co. Arygle ; Jura, 

 which is considerably the smaller of the two, lying north-east of Islay, 

 and separated from it by a channel (approximately) somewhere about a 

 couple of miles wide. It is mentioned in Keith Johnston's ' Gazetteer ' 

 that the estimated area of this island is about 84 sqiiare miles, or 

 58,400 Scotch acres, only five hundred of which are arable." 



The other communication was from Mr. William Eounsfell, written 

 on August 19th from Persabus, Island of Islay, the locality being one 

 mile from Port Askaig which is on the eastern shore of Islay. In this 

 case it wiU be observed that the caterpillars had passed away, but the 

 description of the white appearance of the injured leafage coincides 

 with that of the muslined or laceworked appearance given else- 

 where : — 



" I have not seen the caterpillar on the Turnips yet. My own 

 Turnips looked so fresh that I never thought of examining them till I 

 noticed E. McGeachy's, and especially those on the next farm near the 

 Eoralus March dike, which are the worst I have seen, the leaves being 

 white in some parts of the field. I then looked over my own, and saw 

 the leaves holed also to some extent, but there was no caterpillar 

 to be seen. 



" I have seen a yard or two near the head-rigs covered with them 

 occasionally in former seasons, but never over a whole field. They 

 were delicately light green caterpillars, which a little rain would 

 wash off." 



