NATURE 



577 



THURSDAY, APRIL 22, i5 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



Reports on Insects Injurious to Hop Plants, Corn Crops, 

 and Fruit Crops in Great Britain. Prepared for the 

 Agricultural Department, Privy Council Office, by 

 Charles Whitehead, F.L S., F.G.S. No. II., " Insects 

 Injurious to Corn, Grass, Pea, Bean, and Clover 

 Crops." (1885.) 



Reports of Obseniations of Injurious Insects and Common 

 Farm Pests during the Year 1885, with Methods of 

 Preve7ition and Remedy. By Eleanor A. Ormerod, 

 F.R.Met.Soc, &c. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and 

 Co.; 1886.) 



THE first of these works, a Government Report issuing 

 from the press of Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 

 and bearing the announcement that it was " Presented to 

 both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty," 

 forms the second of the series, and is a very valuable 

 contribution to the knowledge of the insects destructive 

 to crops mentioned above. It will be of great service 

 to agriculturists, Avhether scientific or otherwise, as the 

 whole Report from beginning to end is written in a clear 

 and concise manner, without losing any of its accuracy. 

 The Report occupies seventy pages, and of these, forty-nine 

 pages are devoted to " Insects injurious to corn and grass 

 crops.'' From p. 50 to 56 " Insects injurious to corn in 

 store" are treated of, and from p. 57 to the end " Insects 

 injurious to pea, bean, and clover crops " are dealt with. 

 Each insect has a separate article devoted to it, uniformly 

 treating first of the habits of the creature, the manner and 

 extent of its devastations, then under separate heads the 

 life-history is given, prevention, and remedies. 



The crane-fly, or more popularly the daddy-long- 

 legs (Tipula oleracea, L.), comes in for a considerable 

 share of attention. Mr. Whitehead reminds us that " It 

 is the larva or grubs that injure plants of corn and grass, 

 by attacking them with their strong jaws and eating into 

 them just beneath the surface of the ground, so as either 

 to kill them or make them weak and sickly. In the early 

 spring, if wheat plants which show signs of failing are 

 examined, large ash-grey grubs or maggots will often be 

 found close to the affected plants. Oats and barley are 

 ecjually liable to harm fronr these grubs, not perhaps 

 quite to such an extent as autumn-sown wheat, and espe- 

 cially wheat sown after clover leys." 



Mr. Whitehead gives the following estimate of loss 

 occasioned by these insects : — " A field of oats sown on 

 March I, after clover, was attacked by these grubs. 

 Although it was an even strong plant, it was soon nearly 

 half devoured, and, instead of nine quarters per acre being 

 obtained, as might have been expected from the state of 

 the land, and the circumstances of its cultivation, and the 

 produce of other land hard by, only about four quarters 

 per acre were grown. It is computed that the loss in this 

 case amounted to 80/.'' As an illustration of Mr. White- 

 head's manner of treating the life-history of the several 

 insects, the following quotation from that of the daddy- 

 long-legs will suffice : — " The life-history of the crane- 

 flies, both of the Tipula oleracea and its close congener 

 Vol. XXXIII. — No. 860 



Tipula maculosa, is simple. The eggs are small, oval, 

 conical grains, shining and black as ebony (as Curtis 

 writes), forming a mass which occupies nearly the whole 

 of the abdomen. As many as 300 have been found in 

 one female. These are deposited, in the autumn, upon 

 grass and herbage, and more frequently in the ground. 

 Wet, nndrained meadows and marshy and damp places 

 are preferred by these insects, and the conditions of such 

 spots are probably favourable to the preservation and the 

 ultimate hatching of the eggs. This hatching takes place in 

 the early spring, directly the weather becomes mild. . . . 

 After hatching, the maggots or larvre grow fast until they 

 become an inch in lengtli. Labourers call them ' leather 

 jackets' because of their tough skins. Their colour is of 

 the earth, with a slight dash of grey or ash colour in it. 

 Although they have no legs, they are able to move rapidly 

 from place to place, and burrow in the ground. It is in 

 this grub form that they do mischief to crops, and they 

 remain in this stage of their existence until the beginning 

 of July, at which period they change into pupse under the 

 surface of the soil. After a while the pupaj work their 

 way up to the light by means of hooks or recurved spines, 

 and in a short time the crane-flies appear, and soon un- 

 fold their long wings and fly away to commence a new 

 series." 



After some further notes descriptive of the insects, some 

 'instructions are given under the heads of Prevention and 

 Remedies. 



It will be seen that the mode of imparting information 

 is of the simplest and clearest description, and in this as 

 well as in the manner of treatment the author has followed 

 Miss Ormerod in her well-known manual, and moreover 

 he frequently quotes her views and opinions expressed 

 throughout her valued reports. 



Just as we are finishing this notice Miss Ormerod's ninth 

 annual " Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and 

 Common Farm Pests during the Year 1885, with Methods 

 of Prevention and Remedy," comes to hand. Like its 

 predecessors, it is full of interesting and valuable records. 

 Miss Ormerod has still something more to say on that 

 general pest referred to above — the daddy-long-legs. It 

 i;, perhaps, not generally known how difficult the grubs 

 are to kill, but Miss Ormerod's experiments, as recorded 

 in a previous Report, proved that they could endure 

 almost any amount of freezing and yet come to life as the 

 season returned. Speaking of the grubs, one corre- 

 spondent, in the Report before us, says : — " In my experi- 

 ence, any chemicals applied for their destruction when 

 they begin to make their ravages must destroy the grain. 

 I have had them covered with salt and soot over night, 

 and they have been alive in the morning." Miss Ormerod 

 here notes that " This obsei'vation quite agrees with the 

 result of the experiments of Mr. Ralph Lowe (noted p. 26 

 of Report for 1884), in which grubs covered respectively 

 with quicklime, soot, household salt, and superphosphate, 

 and also some placed in earth mixed with one-fourth of 

 white arsenic, were not at all the worse, excepting those 

 that had been in the arsenic, and even these recovered 

 before the following day. But nitrate of soda had much 

 more serviceable effects." 



It is satisfactory to find that the cases of injurious 

 insects which were exhibited for so long a time in the 

 Bethnal Green Museum are being thoroughly overhauled. 



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