1889.] TEXT BOOKS ON ENTOMOLOGY 277 



tion, but that is long ago now, and the second edition is an 

 issue of the original sheets with a new preface also -i is. 

 is a great deal for students to give. If you want a book for 

 your own study, " Die Praktische Insektenkunde," by 

 Dr. Taschenberg is to my thinking unrivalled for practice 

 and science price circa i 45. 



Now about your Australian larvae. The longer and 

 larger is a lepidopterous caterpillar ; as far as I see nearly 

 allied to our Turnip caterpillar, that is to say, of much the 

 same nature as what we call Surface caterpillar here, and 

 Cut-worms in America. This would probably turn to a good- 

 sized moth. The larvae in the two other bottles appear to me 

 to be beetle grubs, of the Lainellicornes you will notice the 

 three pairs of well-developed legs, and the peculiar swollen 

 form of the caudal extremity. I should suppose that like 

 our Cockchafer (figs. 58) (or some other Chafer) maggots, 

 that they fed at the roots of grass or other plants, but I 

 should not like to commit myself to giving even a generic 

 name to exotic pests in lai;val state. Would not a letter to 

 Mr. Frazer Crawford, Adelaide, be the best way to gain 

 information about prevention ? And about figuring, if you 

 sent specimens to Messrs. West, Newman & Co., 54, Hatton 

 Garden, London, E.C., they would get them well figured 

 but still as the grubs and caterpillar have been so long in 

 spirit the exact shape could not be conveyed. 



I am delighted to hear that you are making progress 

 about attention to insect pests in your University. When 

 Professor Harker x was here lately, he told us something 

 about these matters, and I cordially wished him the post 

 of lecturer. 



November 25, 1889. 



I drew attention carefully in my first official report at 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England (when the 

 Committee began again in November) to the need of 

 caution [in connection with Codlin moth prevention] as to 

 the adulteration that there might be in so-called cart-grease, 

 and also to the success of the plan of before greasing 

 putting paper round the trees. On the first glance it might 

 seem doubtful whether papering was not one of the "study" 

 applications which there are too many of, but it answers so 

 well, that at the great Toddington Fruit Grounds the 

 managers told me they were treating 120,000 trees in this 

 way. The paper is what is used by grocers as " grease 

 proof." It is passed in a broad band round the tree, and 



1 See note ante p. 79. 



