THE HEATHER BEETLE 371 



extent of heather affected in various parts of the country. 

 Diseased heather has been reported from moors in the counties 

 of Nairn, Perth, Inverness, Argyll, Ayr, Lanark, Kirkcudbright, 

 Dumfries, Selkirk, Roxburgh, Fife, Cumberland, Yorkshire, and 

 Montgomery. From this list it will be noted that the blight 

 has been met with principally in the western districts ; but 

 this may be due to lack of information from the east, and it 

 is hardly safe at present to lay much stress upon the distribu- 

 tion of " frosted " heather as indicated by this correspondence 

 alone. 



Now this peculiar and serious condition of heather was, up 

 to a comparatively recent period, universally attributed to the 

 action of frost, whence the popular name of " frosted heather," 

 and even at the present time this opinion is firmly maintained in 

 some quarters. After a careful investigation of the subject we are 

 now in a position to assert with some degree of confidence that the 

 damage is more often the work of an insect. Attention was first 

 drawn to the question in August 1897, when a correspondent 

 in Ayrshire sent to Mr P. H. Grimshaw, of the Royal Scottish 

 Museum, a patch of heather, the shoots of which were brown 

 and withered, while among the roots were a number of small 

 grubs and pupae. This correspondent thought that the damage 

 was caused by these insects, and he suggested that the diseased 

 condition of heather which was so widely known as " frosted " 

 was identical with that of his specimens, and due to the attack 

 of the same species of insect. Acting upon this suggestion, 

 Mr Grimshaw examined the soil about the roots of this sample, 

 and of two other samples sent by the same gentleman a few days 

 afterwards, and found therein numerous examples of tke insect 

 in all stages between that of fully-grown larva and mature 

 insect. He identified the insect as a phytophagous beetle 

 known as Lochmcea suturalis (Thomson), published and a short 

 account of it, with figures. 1 



Little more was thought of the matter until it was again 

 brought to notice in connection with the investigations of the 



1 " Annah of Scottish Natural History," January 1898, pp. 27-29, 



