62 ZOOLOGY. 



been able to invade Ireland, it is unlikely that the many ancient forms of 

 life could have survived there, to delight the naturalist of to-day. 



ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY. 



The peculiarities of Ireland and its animal inhabitants are not without 

 influence on the practical life of the farmer. He may congratulate himself, 

 for example, that such members of the Eastern fauna as the vegetable- 

 feeding Voles — which in British and Continental localities have been known 

 to increase and multiply to a veritable plague — are absent from Ireland. The 

 Hedgehog is certainly a more desirable insect-eater than the absent Mole, 

 since the latter feeds largely on the valuable earthworms, and disturbs agri- 

 cultural land by his underground journeys. The House-sparrow, the only 

 bird perhaps that is an almost unmitigated enemy to the farmer, seems, at 

 least in the remoter parts of Ireland, to be less numerously represented 

 than in Great Britain. 



The damp climate of Ireland is especially favourable to the rapid multi- 

 plication of Slugs and Snails, and much damage to green vegetable produce 

 is due to the hungry appetites of these molluscs. The small slug Agrio- 

 limax a gr est is is perhaps the chief offender. Garden plants are often 

 destroyed by Woodlice, which are unusually numerous in Ireland, especially 

 the species Porcellio scaber and Oniscus asellus. 



But as in most countries, the most serious ravages to farm crops are due 

 to Insects.* That characteristically Irish crop, the Potato, suffers com- 

 paratively little from insect pests, though every dry summer many large 

 caterpillars of the " Death's-head " Moth {Acherontia atropos) may be 

 found feeding, usually by night, on the foliage. Beans and Peas are often 

 attacked by their characteristic black and green Aphids, and the imported 

 seeds for these crops contain too often the destructive beetles of the genus 

 Bruchus. The Mangold and Beet crops are especially subject to insect- 

 ravages in Ireland ; the white fleshy maggots of the Mangold Fly {Pegomyia 

 betce) mine the tissues of the leaves, the caterpillars of the " Silver Y " Moth 

 {Pliisia ganDna) feed openly on the foliage, while the grubs of the Black 

 Carrion Beetle (Silpha opacd) eat up young plants. The carrot is often 

 injured by the root-feeding maggot of the Fly Psila roses, while Celery- 

 leaves are mined by the grub of Acidia heraclei. Cabbages and Turnips 

 are attacked above-ground by the caterpillars of the White Butterflies, and 

 the irrepressible Flea-beetles (" Fly "), and underground by the " surface " 

 caterpillars of Agrotid Moths, and the maggots of Phorbia brassiccs and 

 other Root-Flies. 



Corn crops and pasture lands suffer greatly from the " leather- jacket " 

 grubs of Crane-flies, and the Wire-worm grubs of Click-beetles. The moist, 

 imperfectly drained soil in many parts of the country is especially favourable 

 to Crane-flies. As in Great Britain Agrioies obscurus and A. lineatus are 

 common Click-beetles ; but the most abundant and destructive of these 

 insects in Ireland seems to be Athoiis hcemorrhoidalis. Cockchafer grubs 

 are sometimes injurious, and in certain summers the smaller Chafer Phyl- 

 lopertha horticola multiplies to such an extent in the western counties as to 



* G. H. Carpenter. Reports on Economic Entomology in Reports of R. Dub. Soc, 1891-1900. 



