1894-] LADY-BIRDS AND CENTIPEDES 235 



May 14, 1894. 



I have been quite sorry for a long time that I have had 

 no specimens which would be of interest to you. I was 

 afraid you might think I was not attending to these subjects, 

 but now I have received a cucumber root quite beset with 

 galls, of which I forward you a portion. It is from a 

 nursery gardener at Rhyl, in Flintshire, North Wales, where 

 they are much troubled by cucumber and tomato plants 

 dying, some of both kinds having the " roots covered with 

 galls but some have not." Messrs. Maxwell and Dalgliesh 

 sent me some of the roots without galls, from plants that 

 were nearly dead, but I could not discover the cause of the 

 failure of these. On such inefficient examination as I 

 make, I find in the soft pulpy centre of the larger galls 

 some anguilliform nematodes, which I conjecture to be 



i, Geophilus longicornis ; 2, Lithobius forficatus, " thirty-foot " ; 

 3, head of Lithobius forficatus, magnified. 



FIG. 6O. LONG-HORXED CENTIPEDES. 



males, or larvae, of the H. radicicola, but so far as I searched 

 I did not find females ; there were a fair number of eggs. 

 On cutting the pieces of plant into fragments for packing I 

 find the stem just about the ground-level much beset with 

 diseased growth. I have not, however, delayed to try to 

 examine this, for I might be only wasting specimens. 

 Messrs. M. and D. have five houses fifty yards long each, 

 so the infestation is a serious trouble to them. They tell 

 me that they clear out all the soil each year, and bring 

 fresh soil in. It "is rich alluvial soil." They have tried 

 lime, soot, and nitrate of soda without effect, and I should 

 certainly say that something requires alteration for the exter- 

 mination even of an infestation much more easily dealt with ; 

 for they are troubled by millepedes (fig. 27), and also there 



