56 MANGOLDS. 



on a three-acre field of Mangolds carefully attended to, wrote me that 

 some sort of grub was found at the roots, of which he was going to send 

 a specimen, as it had been pretty general there in its depredations, and 

 two days later he forwarded me samples with the following note : — 

 "According to promise I am forwarding three specimens of Mangold 

 grub just sent down to me by a farmer in this parish." ..." They 

 attack the root of the plant, and I hear that several farmers in the 

 neighbourhood have ploughed up their Mangolds because of the depre- 

 dations of these active little gentlemen." The sample was much 

 shrunken on receipt, but was of " Surface Caterpillars," and so far as 

 could be made out by markings still noticeable was of the Arjrotis 

 ser/etum. 



On July 7th, Mr. Wm. Hooper (Editor of the 'Farmer's Gazette,' 

 Dublin) favoured me with the following note of damage to Mangold 

 plants then going on in the neighbourhood of Thorne, Yeovil, Somerset, 

 where he was then staying ; samples of the infestation, which proved 

 to be of Surface Caterpillars, were sent accompanying; — " Many Man- 

 gold plants here are bitten off at the root, like, and by the enclosed 

 specimens." . . . " These specimens are from a farm at Thorne in the 

 occupation of Mr. John Marsh, and similar damage has been done on 

 contiguous farms." — (W. H.) 



Specimens of Surface Caterpillars were also sent to me on the 30th 

 of July, from Dare Field, Chudleigh Knighton, Newton Abbot (South 

 Devon), by the Kev. F. G. Kiley, as samples of a grub which was 

 causing the greatest destruction amongst Turnips and Mangolds, and 

 was also (in his own garden) eating off Cabbage plants. Mr. Eiley 

 urgently begged for information which might help them in dealing 

 with the infestation, adding the remark, " We seem to be helpless and 

 without remedy against the enemy, so numerous are they this year, as 

 many as fifty round a single Mangold." 



Numerous specimens of Surface Caterpillars were again sent me 

 somewhat later on by the Rev. W. F. Newman with the observation, 

 * ' I have now procured some more of the Mangold grub from a farm of 

 mine up the Dart." Some of the specimens sent were apparently 

 fully grown. 



From Kent, and, later on in the season, from some other southerly 



of the general drought, and apjDears worth mention just to show the prevalence of 

 insect attack under the circumstances. In 1885, during a time of drought, Man- 

 golds, as well as Turnips, were infested by Aphides. These are sometimes taken for 

 the so-called "Collier," the black Bean Aphis, but are more probably the Aphia 

 papaveris, which is known to infest Mangolds, or the A, atriplicis, which is found 

 on Orache and other plants nearly allied to Mangolds. From the many points of 

 resemblance between these three kinds, specimens are needed for certain identifi- 

 cation.^ED. 



