INSECTS AND DISEASES AFFECTING PLANTS. 269 



Aphis, or Green Fly, in great abundance, demonstrating 

 beyond all question the great value of these birds as insect 

 destroyers. 



The Rose Bug (Macrodactylis subspinosus), or Rose 

 Chafer, as it is sometimes called, is so named from its 

 attacking the buds or blossoms of the rose, in preference 

 to anything else, although it is destructive to many other 

 plants, particularly to the Dahlia, the flower of which it 

 devours rapidly. All the ordinary remedies seem to fall 

 harmlessly on the Eose Bug, and if not destroyed by 

 hand its ravages cannot be stopped, unless our feathered 

 friends come to the rescue; whether they will be equally 

 efficacious in destroying the Rose Bug, I am unable to 

 say, although I am inclined to think they will. We have 

 never yet been much troubled with them here, and so far 

 have not had the opportunity of knowing whether the 

 Sparrows feed on them or not. 



The Rose Bug, (Aramigus Fullerii,} the larva of which 

 is so destructive to the roots of roses grown under glass in 

 winter, has no resemblance whatever to either the Rose 

 Slug or the Rose Chafer, but is vastly worse than either 

 of these in its ravages. The perfect insect (that is not 

 unlike the Curculio, which deposits its eggs in the fruit 

 of the Plum tree) does little injury to the Roses, merely 

 biting little circular pieces out of edges of the leaves, but 

 it is by this cutting of the leaves that their presence is 

 first known, as the insect, though larger than a common 

 house fly, is not easily seen from its habit of keeping 

 under the leaves or close to the stems of the plant. So 

 far all efforts to destroy this pest have proved futile, ex- 

 cept to pick off the fully developed bug from the plants, 

 and so prevent it depositing its eggs at the roots of the 

 Roses. These eggs quickly hatch into grubs, resembling 

 meat maggots, which at once begin to feed on the roots, 

 and thus quickly destroy the plants. Once a rose bed gets 



