254 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



Skip-jack Beetle, all too common in the fields 

 during the summer. The larvae are yellowish in 

 colour, varying in length from a quarter to half 

 an inch ; their tough cylindrical bodies looking 

 like little pieces of wire. The destruction which 

 these Wire-worms cause to root, grain, and 

 fodder crops in Great Britain alone, amounts to 

 many thousands of pounds per annum. The 

 larval stage lasts for a considerable period, from 

 three to five years, and the only time that the 

 larvae cease from their voracious attacks upon 

 the roots and underground stems of the various 

 crops, is during very hard winter frosts. Moles, 

 rooks, starlings, plovers or lapwings, and 

 pheasants are the most important natural foes of 

 the Wire-worm, and if encouraged on the land 

 and protected, will far more effectually hold this 

 pest in check than is possible by any artificial 

 means. They are also our best friends in waging 

 successful warfare against the " Leather-jackets," 

 the sooty-brown coloured, cigar-shaped larvae of 

 the Daddy-long-legs fly. Indeed, but for the 

 untiring labours of our bird friends and the moles, 

 large areas of pasturage would annually be laid 

 waste by the depredations of these insects, which 

 also attack the roots of corn, cabbage, kale, and 

 other vegetables. 



Of the terrible ravages which our insect foes 

 are capable of causing, we have a striking object 

 lesson in the appalling destruction wrought in 

 the vineyards of France by the Phylloxera, a 

 very small insect closely allied to the Aphides. 

 In the year 1875 the area under cultivation as 

 vineyards in France amounted to 6,382,000 acres, 



