RAVAGES OF GRUBS. 231 



found in abundance where ravages have been com- 

 mitted by others that have naturally disappeared It 

 is not improbable that this was the case with a grub 

 of some beetle (Staphylinidce!), mentioned by 

 Mr Walford, and mistaken by him for the wire 

 worm Out of fifty acres of wheat sown in 1802, 

 ten had been destroyed in October, by this grub 

 eating into the centre of the young stem an inch 

 below the surface and killing the plant.* It seems 

 still more probable that the grub of a native beetle 

 (Zabrus gibbus, STEPHENS), which has been found 

 in considerable numbers near Worthing, Brighton, 

 Hastings, and Cambridge, has been unjustly blamed 

 as a destroyer of corn; though we have the respect- 

 able authority of Germar, who, with other members 

 of the society of Natural History of Halle, ima- 

 gined he had ascertained the fact. In the spring of 

 1813, about two hundred and thirty acres of young 

 wheat are said to have been destroyed by it; and it 

 is farther supposed to be the same insect which 

 caused great destruction in Italy in 1776. This grub 

 is said to take probably three years in coming to a 

 beetle, in which state it is alleged to clamber up the 

 stems at night, to get at the corn. It is important 

 to remark, that along with these grubs were found 



x 



a, Zabrus glbbus ; 6, Melolontha ruficornis. 

 * Linn. Trans, ix, 156-61. 



