THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



" perlitora sparf;ite museum, 



Tfaiades, et cirehm vitreos considite fontes : 

 PoUice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divae, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o NymphsB Craterides, ite sub undag ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia triinco 

 Vellite muspoais e rupibiis, et mihi conchas 

 Fertc, Deie pelagi, et pingui conchylia suoco." 



N. Parthenii (iianneffasii Re). I . 



No. 103. JULY 1S86. 



I. — On Aphis rumicis, Linn.^ as a Pest on the Mangel- 

 Wurzel Crops in Shropshire in the Autumn of 1885, and 

 on a Fungus destructive of the same Apliis. By Rev. 

 William Houghton, M.A., F.L.S., and William 

 Phillips, F.L.S. 



[riate III.] 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History. 



Gentlemen, — I have to record the occurrence of a species of 

 Aphisj which I take to be the A. ricmicis of Linne, tlie A. 

 fabce of Curtis, infesting the leaves of the mangel plants in 

 this neighbourhood, last September and October, to a con- 

 siderable and very threatening degree. I never noticed any 

 species of Ap)his to any extent on mangel crops before last 

 autumn. As a rule, this plant has, in our own country at 

 least, comparatively few insect enemies. No record of rnan- 

 gels suffering much from any insect attack appears till the 

 year 1844, when, in the north of Ireland, entire crops were 

 destroyed by the larvse of one of the carrion-beetles, Silpha 

 opaca, which infested the young plants in spring, feeding on 

 the leaves and leaving only the fibres ; the roots were not 

 attacked. In 1846 and 1847 they again injured the crops, 

 and, indeed, to this day it appears that they continue to be an 

 An7i. & Mag. N, Hist. Ser. 5, Vol. xviii. 1 



