134 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



which extend their ravages indifferently to all. Of ^lis description is the 

 Pyralis (?) frumentalis, which moth, Pallas tell us, is an almost universal 

 pest in the government of Kasan in Russia, often eating the greater part 

 of the spring corn to the root.^ To this we are fortunately strangers ; 

 but another, well known by the name of the wire-worm, causes annually 

 a large diminution of the produce of our fields, destroying indiscriminately 

 wheat, rye, oats, and grass. This insect, which has its name apparently 

 from its slender form, and uncommon hardness and toughness, is the grub 

 of one of the elastic beetles termed by Linne Elater lineatus, but by 

 Bierkander, to whom we are indebted for its history, E. Segetis^ (Agriotes 

 /meaJ'us Eschscholtz). The late ingenious Mr. Paul of Starston in Norfolk 

 (well known as the inventor of a machine to entrap the turnip-beetle, 

 which may be applied by collectors with great advantage to general pur- 

 poses,) has also succeeded in tracing this insect from the larva to the imago 

 state. His larvae produced Elater obscurus of Mr. Marsham, which how- 

 ever comes so near to E. Segetis that it is doubtful whether it be more 

 than a variety. The other species, however, of the genus have similar 

 larvae, many of which probably contribute to the mischief When told 

 that it lives in its first (or feeding) state not less than five years, during 

 the greatest part of which time it is supported by devouring the roots of 

 grain, though it will also attack and often much injure turnips, potatoes, 

 &,c., you will not wonder that its ravages should be so extensive, and that 

 whole crops should sometimes be cut off by it. As it abounds chiefly in 

 newly broken-up land, though the roots of the grasses supply it with food, 

 it probably does not do any great injury to our meadows and pastures.^ 



Here also may be included the larva of the long-legged gnat (TipiUa 

 oleracea), known in many parts by the name of (he grub, which is some- 

 times very prejudicial to the grass in marshy lands, and at others not less 

 so to corn. Reaumur informs us, that in Poitou, in certain years, the grass 

 of whole districts has been so destroyed by it, as not to produce the food 



' Pallas's Travels in South Russia, i. 30. 'j| 



* Blarsham in Communications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412. Plate viii.^g-. 4. and 

 Linn. Trans, ix. 160. 



3 The wire-worm is particularly destructive for a few years in gardens recently convert- 

 ed from pasture ground. In the Botanic Garden at Hull thus circumstanced a great pro- 

 portion of the annuals sown in J 8 13 were destroyed by it. A very simple and effectual 

 remedy in such cases was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He recommended that 

 slices of potato stuck upon skewers should be buried near the seeds sown, examined every 

 day, and the wire-worms which collect upon them in great numbers destroyed. 



This plan of decoying destructive animals from our crops by offering them more tempt- 

 ing food is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in other instances. It was very success- 

 fully employed in 1813 by J. M. Rodwell, Esq. of Barham Hall near Ipswich, one of the 

 most skilful and best-informed agriculturists in the county of Suffolk, to preserve some of 

 his wheat fields from the ravages of a small grey slug, which threatened to demolish the 

 plant. Having heard that turnips had been used with success to entice the slugs from 

 ■wheat, he caused a sufficient quantity to dress eight acres to be got together; and then, the 

 tops being divided and the apples sliced, he directed the pieces to be laid separately, dress- 

 ing two stelches with them and omitting two alternately, till the whole field of eight acres 

 was gone over. On the following morning he employed two women to examine and free 

 from the slugs, which they did into a measure, the tops and slices ; and when cleared, they 

 were laid upon those stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was ob.served 

 invariably, that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs were to be found upon the 

 wheat or crawling upon the land, though they abounded upon the turnips ; while on the 

 undressed stetches they were to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and on the 

 land. The quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel. — Mr. Rodwell is persuaded 

 that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injnry. 



