136 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
copied by Mr. Curtis in his ‘ Farm Insects,’ p.395. Accord- 
ing to these authorities the beetle in question is the Atomaria 
pygmea of Heer, the Atomaria linearis of our countryman 
the late J. F. Stephens: the specimens, of which I have 
received a copious supply in a living and excessively restless 
state, seemed closely to resemble certain examples of an 
Atomaria, which very many years ago I had named 
“A. gutta.” I am, however, perfectly willing to accept 
Heer’s name of “ Pygmza,” or any other that will be tolerably 
permanent. M. Bazin, as translated by Mr. Curtis, tells us 
that this little beetle is “generated in great numbers, 
destroying the buds as they appear, and that on removing 
the clods -of earth innumerable quantities may be seen.” It 
seems at first to attack the root only, but afterwards, when 
the weather is fine, it comes out of the ground, ascends the 
stem, and devours the leaves. ‘‘ These little creatures often 
appear in families on a small plant, of which in a few hours 
nothing will remain but a leafless stalk, which soon withers 
and dies.” M. Bazin first observed this beetle in 1839 at 
Mesnil-St.-Firmin ; and some years later M. Macquard stated 
that “it devoured the fields of red beet in the environs of 
Lille to such an extent that the cultivators were obliged to 
re-plough and re-sow the fields.” M. Bazin considers the 
following remedies to be infallible:—Ist, fallowing; 2nd, 
heavy rolling; 8rd, good tillage; 4th, powerful manure; 
5th, thick sowing. I must in this instance totally disclaim 
all experimental knowledge of these remedies. I give them 
solely on the authority of the learned Frenchman, to whom 
we are indebted for the earliest life-history I have seen of this 
insect. Mr. W. H. Wayne, an intelligent correspondent of the 
‘Field, informs us that the injury “ still continues in spite of 
salt, lime, and soot,” leading us to believe that he has given 
these supposed remedies a fair trial. Mangold wurzel is also 
obnoxious to the attack of several species of the saltant 
genus Altica, the larve of which mine the leaves in the same 
manner as those of the turnip are mined by Altica Nemorum; 
and it has been said that the larve of a necrophagous beetle 
(Silpha opaca) feed greedily on the leaves, beginning at 
their edges, just in the same manner as a woodlouse or the 
caterpillar of a moth. The curious fact of these insects 
eating green leaves, a diet so opposed to the taste we should 
