2710 The Zoologist — August, 1871. 



mangold wurtzel was also satisfactory. The hay crop and the 

 turnip crop were failures, the latter especially so. All kinds of 

 cultivated fruit were abundant throughout the country. The 

 drought continued to the end of August, when a few timely showers 

 fell, which revived drooping plants. After the 16th of September 

 the weather was again dry till the 12lh of October. On the 9th of 

 November there was a severe hoar-frost, and on the 11th snow — the 

 first of the winter. From that time the weather was winterly, rain, 

 frost and snow alternating till the 21st of December, when a severe 

 storm set in which lasted till the 5th of January. 



In April considerable areas of growing peas were attacked by 

 some insect; the young succulent leaves were eaten ofiF as soon as 

 they appeared above ground. I communicated the fact to Mr. Rye, 

 of London, and in reply he said the depredator would probably be 

 Sitones lineata, one of our commonest beetles : I never saw the 

 insect; it must have fed in the night, and retired into the earth in 

 the day-lime. Aphides began to appear on turnips about the 15th 

 of July, from which date they gradually increased and overspread 

 all cruciferous plants, both in gardens and fields: turnips were 

 completely smothered, the foliage beginning to wither early in 

 summer: a very disagreeable stench arose from the fields of rotting 

 leaves. Cabbages, greens, and other plants of the same tribe, were 

 thickly covered and lined with Aphides ; the rain and cooler 

 weather of the latter part of the year did not seem to greatly 

 diminish their numbers, for they remained on the plants till the 

 end of October. About the 1st of August I noticed numbers of a 

 different kind of Aphis lodged in the wheat-ears; there were also 

 ladybirds among them. The ladybirds, as usual, were very numerous 

 among the Aphides on cruciferous plants. 1 strongly suspect that 

 some farmers consider the larvae of ladybirds hurtful to the turnips, 

 seeing that they find them in couipany with the destructive lice. 

 The beetles, in both larval and adult states, feed on Aphides; 

 birds, to some extent, feed on them ; and large numbers are caught 

 in spiders' webs towards the end of summer. Insects of the bee 

 tribe also help to lessen their numbers. At the end of July I found 

 quantities of Aphides collected in hollow sticks, mostly dead 

 brambles : these hollow pipes are made by liyraenopterous insects ; 

 they cut a hole in the side, and then excavate the pith several 

 inches down the stick : the pith-dust is carried up all the length of 

 the stick, and thrown out of the little orifice which forms the 



