Insects. 9547 



depredations are mostly above the surface of the ground, and it seems 

 to delight in that particular part of a plant which lies between root 

 and stem, as I have found numbers of young turnips and carrots 

 divided exactly at this spot, the upper part being left to perish on the 

 surface of the ground. In August and September the grub goes further 

 down ; its operations are now almost entirely subterranean, and its 

 chosen site is the very base of the turnip bulb around the tap root which 

 descends into the earth. Here it excavates large and almost spherical 

 cavities, in which it resides henceforward, except daring severe frost, 

 not returning to the surface unless its food fails. When full grown it is 

 an inch and three-quarters, or even two inches, in length, extremely 

 stout, and its skin tight and shining. When forcibly unearthed, it 

 rolls itself in a loose ring, but almost immediately afterwards unrolls, 

 and, if placed on the surface of the earth, instantly buries itself with 

 the activity and skill of a mole. Both rooks and partridges are aware 

 of this, and it is very interesting to watch with a pocket-glass the 

 instantaneous movement with which they seize on this grub directly 

 they have brought him to the surface, the rook delving for him with 

 his beak, — a habit that might have obtained for this invaluable bird 

 the name oifodiens \A\hex ihdM frugilegus, — and the partridge turning 

 him out by the simple expedient of scratching, after the method 

 practised by all birds of the poultry order. 



The head of the full-fed larva is stretched out on a plane with the 

 body, and is much narrower than the 2nd segment, flattened, and not 

 notched on the crown j the body is cylindrical, the back slightly 

 wrinkled transversely ; the colour of the head is pale dingy brown, with 

 two longitudinal patches of dark brown on the face ; the labium and 

 antennal papillae are white ; the body is pale smoke-colour, sometimes 

 slightly tinged with pink, and the 2nd segment having on its back a 

 dark and semicircular shining plate ; each of the other segments has 

 ten circular, shining, dot-like spots, slightly raised above the surface of 

 the skin, and slightly darker than the ground colour; each of these 

 spots emits a small central bristle, and each, also, is surrounded by a 

 paler area; on the 3rd and 4th segments these spots form a pretty 

 regular transverse series, but on the 5th and following segments four 

 of them are ranged in a square or trapezoid; one spot is situated just 

 above each spiracle, and one below it, and two others on each side of 

 each spiracle ; the spiracles themselves are very small and intensely 

 black; the belly of the larva is the colour of putty ; the legs are pale, 

 and the claspers putty-coloured and very small, not spreading at the 

 ends. The larvae turn to smooth brown pupae in the ground, some in 



