THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 331 



little is left of her body, — like the roof of a house, protects the 

 family below from all casualties of wind and weather. In a 

 few days, after the death of the mother, the eggs hatch and 

 become the lively little runners I have already described. 

 They first devour the cottony stuff among which they were 

 born, and then lift up the roof- like covering formed by the 

 dried cuticle of their defunct parent; and each selects his own 

 path in life, never to return. Several species seem to be true 

 natives of this country ; others are certainly only denizens. 



A neio Insect-enemy of Turnips and Rape. — You are 

 perfectly aware that I do not possess any scientific know- 

 ledge in Entomology, but, as you have so laudably set apart 

 a portion of the * Entomologist' for recording facts connected 

 with economic Entomology, I know that you will be pleased 

 to receive any trustworthy testimony on behalf of such. Last 

 evening my brother and I, while walking across a piece of 

 newly-sown rape {Brassica Napus), discovered that thousands 

 of minute insects — so minute that my pocket-lens was not 

 sufficiently powerful to reveal the order they belonged to — 

 were puncturing and feeding on the cotyledons, or first 

 leaves; and so quickly did they spring off that I had to 

 return home for some gum and a sheet of white paper, 

 which, when well gummed and hastily turned over the plant, 

 secured about a score specimens, and these I have to-day 

 forwarded to you in a box, the bottom of which had also to 

 be thickly gummed to keep the little skipping fellows in. 

 Though they may turn out to be the commonest of all known 

 insects, these are certainly new to me as being destructive 

 to rape and turnips ; for, although 1 have farmed extensively 

 for twenty years, I never noticed them before ; and I 

 think you will agree with me that I do not always " go about 

 with my eyes shut." I know that little pest, the turnip-fly 

 {Altica Nemorum), only too well; but these appear equally 

 destructive, and equally nimble. Will you, therefore, kindly 

 tell me their names, and what you know of their economy ? — 

 Henry Reeks ; East Woodhay, May 24, 1871. 



These minute insects were so clogged with the gum 

 introduced for the purpose of preventing their escape, that I 

 cannot decide with certainly on their names : I believe, 

 however, that they are a species of Poduridae, perhaps 

 Smynthurus fuscus. I should much like to see living speci- 



