LONDON INSECTS 65 



every part of the world might be made as in the 

 neighbourhood of the London Docks. They come, 

 whether we will or not, as stowaways from every port 

 with which our ships trade from every part, that is, 

 of the habitable world. 



It was only a few years ago as late as 1877 

 that the help of the three Estates of the Realm was 

 called in to prevent an invasion of a small yellow and 

 black-striped beetle, scarcely bigger than a Ladybird. 

 An Act of Parliament was passed, two Orders at least, 

 with pains and penalties, were issued in the Queen's 

 name, and something over 10,000 broad sheets printed 

 and circulated broadcast throughout the country, 

 giving coloured pictures of the miscreant, life-sized and 

 magnified, in every stage of its existence, and announcing 

 in colonial English and large print that ' the country 

 around the town of Ontario, Canada,' was 'swarming 

 with the Colorado Beetle,' and that the Canadian 

 Minister had reported that not only did it 'move by 

 flying and by navigating, so to speak, smooth water, but 

 also travelled on common vehicles, railway-carriages 

 and platforms ' most alarming of all ' and on decks 

 of vessels, etc., especially during the months of August 

 and September.' 



Solomon on his flying carpet, with his royal escort of 

 Hoopoes, would be a scarcely more startling party to 

 meet than a company of Potato Bugs crossing the 

 Atlantic on a railway platform. 



There is a tradition that an insect even more hateful, 

 the Common Bug, was unknown in England before the 

 E 



