9068 Insects. 
indigenous species of the family; and, secondly, because Menzel’s 
brochure and the work of Curtis are as yet very little known.* 
Mr. Menzel states that in 1842 and 1853 this sawfly proved very 
destructive in the Swiss Canton of Zurich ; in the first-named year its 
effects were confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the town of 
Zurich, but in September of the latter year the insect had extended its 
ravages throughout the canton. M. Cornelius, writing from Elberfeld 
at the end of October, 1858, stated that the larva of this sawfly was to 
be met with in immense numbers on the turnip-plant, not only in the 
neighbourhood of his place of residence, but also in the Moselle dis- 
trict, and, as he supposed, had extended its ravages through the whole 
of Rhenish Prussia. He adds, that four years previously the injury 
caused by the insect had been noticed, although to a much less 
extent. 
We have taken the following respecting the ravages of Athalia 
spinarum in our own country, from the ‘Journal of Agriculture’ of 
Dr. J. Wttewaall. 
Before the year 1854 the larva does not appear to have caused any 
such damage to the turnip crop as to have been considered worthy of 
notice in the public papers or any scientific publication; its ravages 
were first observed by my friend Wttewaall himself on his own sum- 
mer turnips. It was also stated by M. Havelaar, of Ellekom, that as 
early as 1833 the injury caused by this insect to his turnip crops had 
attracted his attention, and that in the above-mentioned year, 1854, 
his whole crop of that vegetable was destroyed by Athalia spinarum. 
He had at the same time observed that the larva always, or so long as 
possible, eats holes in the leaves, so that it very rarely feeds with its 
body sidewise, only doing so when all the substance of the leaf 
between the veins has been consumed; for this reason he calls in 
question the accuracy of the figure given by Nordlinger at page 469 
of ‘Die Kleine Feinde der Landwirthschaft.’ 
In the following year, 1855, the larva was more widely spread, and 
appeared in the turnip-fields in increased numbers, so that notices 
were received from various parts of the country respecting the injury 
it was causing. The editor of the ‘ Landbouw Courant’ (‘Journal of 
Agriculture’) was informed that its ravages had been observed on the 
* The above observation is of course applied, in the original, to Dutch readers; 
but as most English naturalists may be supposed to be acquainted with the ‘ Farm 
Insects’ of Curtis, I have, with the permission of the author, omitted that part of the 
present paper in which he recapitulates the main facts contained in Mr. Curtis’s book 
respecting the ravages caused by this sawfly in Great Britain—J. W. M. 
