2 TURNIP. 



For convenience of reference this information lias been divided 

 and classed in the following pages under various heads, showing the 

 amount of attack in the localities observed, accompanied in some 

 cases by estimates of loss ; also notes regarding methods of cultiva- 

 tion and state of tilth found best suited to prevent fly -attack and 

 encourage a good plant-growth ; seed ; dressings ; applications found of 

 service when fly is present ; and other points bearing on prevention 

 of attack. 



The pest under consideration is for the most part referred to 

 in these pages as " Turnip Fly," not by its scientific name, because 

 the various kinds that injure us, whether they have a stripe along the 

 wing-cases, like Phyllotreta nemorum (see above figure), or like 

 P. undulata ; or are brassy, like P. concinna, sometimes known as the 



PHYLLOTRETA CONCINNA. 

 1 and 2, Hop Flea, nat. size and magnified ; 3, hind leg, magnified, showing tooth. 



Hop Flea-beetle, or Tooth-legged Beetle ; or may be of others of the 

 many species of Phyllotreta, or Haltica, as it was formerly called; 

 still these are all " Fly " or " Flea " beetles, and, as far as we know, 

 have all the same method of life ; injure us more or less in the same 

 manner (P. nemorum and undulata to the greatest extent with regard 

 to Turnips), and are kept down by the same means. They live 

 during winter, whilst torpid, under sheltering clods and rubbish, and 

 in spring the Turnip-flies come out to feed on anything they can find 

 of the Turnip and Cabbage tribe, especially such weeds as charlock or 

 jack-by -the -hedge, until the young Turnips are ready for them, when 

 we know too well where their preference lies ; and there are several 

 broods, sometimes as many as five or six, during the season. These 

 are carried on by the female beetle laying eggs beneath the Turnip 

 leaves. Small whitish maggots (see figure) hatch from these, and 

 make their way into the pulp of the leaf, where they feed, and from 

 which, when full fed, they come out and bury themselves about two 

 inches deep in the ground, where they turn to chrysalids (see figure). 

 From these chrysalids or pupae the Turnip " Fly " or Flea-beetles are 

 developed, and come up from the ground about thirty days after the 

 date of the laying of the eggs from which their lives started. 



