GARDEN PESTS 57 



One case, at any rate, is worth mentioning now, that of 

 the common Oil Beetle, which passes through quite a 

 strange cycle ere it reaches the adult stage. The female 

 insect appears to be altogether careless of her offspring. 

 She drops her eggs anywhere (truly there are 7,000 or 

 8,000 of them), and these minute blind maggots, as soon 

 as hatched, have only one idea to start with, viz. to cHng. 

 They manage to crawl up a buttercup and wait until a 

 bee comes along. The creature then clutches hold of 

 ;Mrs. Bee's ankle and refuses to let go until she has taken 

 him home. Thus, before the grub is an hour or so old, 

 and before it can even hope for anything to eat, it must 

 go as a passenger on a comprehensive aeroplane flight 

 with a lady whom it has never seen ! Once in the hive, 

 however, the little grub is safe, and it proceeds to despatch 

 the young bee and live upon the careful store there laid 

 up for another insect. 



All that pests ask of us is to be allowed to live. All 

 that we ask of them is that they should take their energies 

 elsewhere. How are the two opposing interests to be 

 reconciled or otherwise dealt with ? 



Let us take the principal item for this chapter, 

 for I think that out of it we can gleam the ruling 

 idea that should govern our management of all the 

 others. 



The Cabbage Butterflies are familiar to everybody, 

 too much so. The Large White (Pieris brassica) measures 

 about 3 inches across the fore-wings, and the Small 

 White {P. rapce) varies between 1 and 1| inches. Both 

 are quite distinct species, with a separate history, although 

 so much ahke, except in size. In both insects the males 

 are characterized by the absence of the round black 

 spots in the top corner of each fore-wing, which are 

 always seen in the females. The general colour is black 

 and white, but on the undersides of the wings there is 

 a delicate powdering of apple yellow approaching to 

 green, an effect which by the aid of a pocket lens may 



