^6 MUSTARD, 



enclose you some live specimens of the weevil, and also some sprouts 

 which have been eaten in the ground ; I am afraid the latter will be 

 too shrivelled to be of any service to you." 



The little seedling plants were too shrivelled to be useful for 

 figuring, but they well confirmed Mr. Leonard's account of the damage 

 caused to the very young plants by being gnawed by the weevils, and 

 the plentiful supply of the weevils, sent accompanying, gave me 

 material for the figures at the head of this paper. 



In the course of his communications, Mr. Leonard mentioned that 

 a large quantity of seed had passed through his hands in the spring, 

 but he had not seen one weevil amongst it; and, after the great ravage 

 alluded to above, this C. contractus, sometimes kuown formerly as the 

 " Charlock-seed Weevil," appears to have entirely vanished. On the 

 5th of August, Mr. Leonard, in continuation of his observations, 

 noted : — " The weevil, as I reported, did a great deal of damage where 

 the plant was checked in its growth by drought, and in several fields, 

 where the same insect had eaten off the young plant just under the 

 surface, the crop had to be sown over again ; but in no case have I had 

 it reported to me that the weevil appeared a second time ; in fact, the 

 second sowing of Mustard seed looks very well. 



"The weevil seemed entirely to disappear in a few days, during 

 which loe had no rain. I was asked to examine a field which was 

 very badly infested ; ten days afterwards I could not find a single 

 specimen." 



On the 11th of November, Mr. Leonard further noted: — "Our 

 second sowing of Mustard seed has done fairly well, and in no case has 

 any perceptible damage been done to it by the weevil, in fact I have 

 never noticed one since the first attack." 



Some notes sent me on the 26th of May, by Mr. Edmund Eiley, of 

 The Weir, Hessle, Hull, obviously refer to this Ceutorhynchus contractus 

 presence : — "I was in Hull on Tuesday; several of the Sunk Island 

 farmers complain bitterly about something eating their Mustard just 

 before it comes up, that is, as soon as it has burst through the skin ; 

 the two delicate leaves are eaten, and the seedling dies." 



The only previous occasion recorded (so far as I am aware of) of 

 this weevil doing serious damage was in 1881, the year memorable for 

 the great Turnip Flea Beetle attack, which was little less than a 

 scourge over a great part of England and Scotland. In that year this 

 Ceutorlujnchus contractus (the Charlock or Charlock-seed Weevil) was 

 reported as doing much damage to young Turnips in their first growth, 

 and also (which may be an important point in its habits for preventive 

 service) when the Turnips were cleared, going on to Charlock, some- 

 times known in Scotland as "Bunches," or "Skellocks," and scientifi- 

 cally as the Sinajns arvensis, Linn. The method of injury was of much 



