December 20, 1870. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



515 



attention, ranch head and hand work, an enemy, toiling in- 

 sidiously at first, suddenly places his mark triumphantly upon 

 our choice plants, flowers, or fruits, as much as to say, " That's 

 mine, whether you like it or no!" Bat, still, I oonfess to 

 feeling concern when I see an individual with a brow puckered 

 in wrath pounce upon some helpless wretches belonging to the 

 inseot raoe, hiB expression implying that he considers death 

 alone almost too good for them. Myself an inseot-killer under 

 some ciroumstances, I lie exposed to an extent to the tu quoqae 

 argument, yet there is a justification whioh I can plead ; so also 

 has the horticulturist, but he ought to remember (what many 

 forget), that the injuries we receive from insects are more con- 

 spicuous than the benefits, and yet the latter are more nu- 

 merous than might be supposed, and some of these are derived 

 from insects which are deemed pests, and actually are so to 

 some extent. 



I venture upon these prefatory remarks, because when sub- 

 sequently disoussing the histories of a portion of the gardener's 

 enemies, reference must be made to modes of extirpation — or, 

 at least, of diminution, and thereby I may give a stimulus to 

 inseot slaughter. Personally, I shali probably reap one benefit, 

 I shall eat fewer insects (for in spite of all the care of cooks, 

 some species come to table at times) ; yet, on the other hand, 

 should my dreams be haunted, like those of the old Greek hero, 

 by the ghosts of my victims, I may behold, in addition to the 

 inseots whioh I myself have killed, those also which I have 

 slain by proxy. Think of this, friendly reader, and go not to 

 work too rashly in the task of insect- destruction ; rather emulate 

 the spirit Izaak Walton shows — when advising his pupil as to 

 the best method of transfixing the worm upon the hook, he 

 says that he is to handle it as if he loved it! Who knows but 

 that the new generation of gardeners will be more sensitive 

 than the past? Such a thing may be as that a man will be 

 heard soliloquising after the manner of Sterne. Surveying a 

 caterpillar on the path which he has just orushed, one might 

 hear a gardener exclaiming, " Yes, there thou liest, poor 

 creature ! Thy life, brief to me, though seeming ages to thee, 

 is momentarily terminated. Where are now thy Bixteen legs 

 (let me see, no, six legs and ten claBpers), thy twelve segments? 

 They are blended in an indistinguishable mass ! Thy head, 

 also, is a ruin — thy head, in which, perchance, there dwelt 

 pleasing visions of days to come, when thou shouldest scorn 

 earth, and pass in the aerial regions from flower to flower." 

 However, this has not yet come to pass, and gardeners now 

 look upon insects as their natural enemies, and kill them with- 

 out superfluous tenderness. But, to speak seriously, the sin- 

 gularities of insect structure and insect habits, when they be- 

 come known to persons of intelligence, do, indeed, awaken a 

 very different feeling towards these creatures than may be ex- 

 pected to be found in one who, like Mr. Wood's friend alluded 

 to in " Common Objects of the Country," supposes that cater- 

 pillars are " only skin and squash " 



In my earlier entomological days my liking for inseots 

 having been perceived by some of my friends, I received one 

 morning a donation in the shape of a wooden box, the contents 

 of which the giver expected that I should be much delighted 

 with. Opening it, there was in view the unsightly grub of the 

 cockchafer whioh had just been disinterred. My gratitude for 

 this rather undesirable gift was a little forced ; butterflies and 

 moths I loved, but beetle larva? were then rather beyond me. 

 Throughout the winter months these creatures are turned up 

 both in gardens and in fields, and not only by man accidentally, 

 but intentionally by birds, rooks and Btarlings espeoially, and, 

 as it often happens in similar cases, the birds are blamed for 

 disturbing the soil when they rather deserve thanks. 



The larva of the cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris) is most in- 

 jurious in those gardens, of which the e are many throughout our 

 land, which have approximating to them an extensive stretch of 

 grass fields ; in these the inseots have their head quarters, and 

 make incursions to the neighbouring garden ground. In the 

 market gardens of some districts this larva has been noticed to be 

 particularly partial to the roots of the Strawberry and the Rose ; 

 in meadows Lucerne and the cereals are frequently attacked by 

 it, and there the results are more notable than in the instance 

 of stronger and taller plants ; the aspect in some oases leading 

 us to suppose that some insect pest had attacked the growth 

 above instead of below the ground. Figuier seems to think 

 that this insect is more abundant now than formerly, and be- 

 cause the land is more efficiently cultivated. The fact is well 

 established that the female beetle chooses by preference light 

 and manured soil when she can get it, which may seem to 

 favour his idea ; yet by the accounts which he himself gives of 



the multitudes recorded to have appeared in other days, it 

 does not appear that in recent times the cockchafer has done 

 an injury equivalent to the increase of cultivated ground. In 

 Prussia the species did much damage in 1835, and in France 

 in 1854. But farther back we have astonishing accounts of the 

 profusion in whioh cockchafers appeared, making due allow- 

 ance for exaggeration. In 1574 this species was abundant in 

 England — so abundant, it is said, as to stop the working of 

 millB on the Severn. Ireland, too, in 1688 had bo great a pro- 

 fusion that the insects did much damage -in their adult state, 

 the sound of their wings at night being described as terrific ; 

 and, as a last resource, the Irish fell to and ate them. But it 

 is most amusing to read, that the cockchafers, having caused 

 a famine in some districts, were summoned to appear before 

 an ecclesiastical court at Liuaanne. Sentence was duly passed 

 upon them, and they were ordered to quit the territory — a 

 capital decision, the only difficulty how it should be enforced. 



One thing is quite obvious in the history of the cookchafer. 

 This is, that it appears periodically in more plenty, owiug to 

 the three years occupied by its transformations. 1865 and 

 1868 were cocliohafer years in most places, so that we may 

 presume that there will be more of the perfect inseot than 

 usual about in 1871. Other years a certain number of stragglers 

 appear. I saw the insect in various places during 1869 and 

 1870. This remark, of course, applies only to the cockchafer in 

 its winged state ; in the larval stage it is active enough in the 

 interval, and likely to be most destructive towards the close of 

 the third year; when getting sizeable it is still more voracious 

 than when young. The eggs of the cockchafer are deposited in 

 the ground by the female, with the aid of her first pair of legs ; 

 the number of eggs usually being about thirty. Hatching in a 

 few weeks, the young larva? immediately begin to feed, though 

 at first they are only moderate consumers. In the winter, at 

 least during the severe part of it, they become torpid, taking 

 the precaution then to bury themselves at a greater depth. 

 After numerous changes of skin, towards the autumn of the 

 third year from their appearance from the egg, they are of 

 mature size, and pass into the pupal stage. This is of brief 

 duration, the beetle emerging in October or November, but, 

 singular to say, it remains in the retreat, beiDg very soft, until 

 the spring, when it works gradually to the surface. Hence a 

 sharp frost in the early spring sometimes gives a cheek to their 

 increase by killing some of the beetles ere they are fully 

 hardened ; and in the same way also some of the larva? are de- 

 stroyed. When we see cookchafers about in the daytime we 

 are apt to form a very mistaken notion about them. Languid 

 and Btupid as they seem in the sunshine, which they always 

 avoid when they can, they are lively enough after dark, and 

 eat the leaves of various trees, and in places where they are 

 particularly plentiful woods and parks suffer severely. It has 

 been suggested as desirable that these inseots should be hunted 

 down in this adult state rather than as larva? ; Shey may be 

 shaken from trees during the day, and the killing of the 

 females includes, of course, the destruction of their progeny. 

 The only way of getting rid of the larva? is to turn over the 

 ground, if you can, where they occur, and then they muBt be 

 either picked up or killed by the sprinkling of some oompound. 

 In Russia, we are told, " the people havereaohed the advanced 

 stage of making cockchafer flour, which at present is only em- 

 ployed for the purpose of making cakes for young pheasants, 

 partridges, or quails." The common designation of the cock- 

 chafer larva? in many English counties is the " white grub." 

 The Sussex folks are reported to call it " Job-hassett," a rather 

 dubious name. 



Amongst the dead leaves which are swept up in the vicinity 

 of Gooseberry and Currant bushes, are some of the winter 

 retreats of the Currant Moth (Abraxas grossulariata), and if 

 these are not burnt, or otherwise effsotually disposed of, tho 

 young caterpillars early in the spring emerge to renew their 

 attacks on their favourite bushes. Many, however, remain on 

 these through the winter, spinning a leaf to a twig as an 

 anchorage, and, Boreened by this, defying the cold and the 

 moisture: so that, in spare moments, the gardener will do 

 well to pick off carefully any leaves he sees remaining, more 

 particularly on the Gooseberry and Black Currant. The cater- 

 pillars, however, will, if need be, feed also on the Bed Currant, 

 A more effectual way of keepiDg this caterpillar under is to 

 examine the leaves for the yellow eggs, which are laid in June 

 and July. Mr. Newman states that he has often watched the 

 female moths " not only in the evening, but even in the middle 

 af a warm day, depositing a Bingle egg on a leaf of Gooseberry 

 or Black Currant, and then flying off to another." According 



