352 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



particularly those of genus Potomogeton, and the young, on 

 escaping, swim freely in the water, probably feeding on 

 minute animalcules. Be this as it may, it has been ascer- 

 tained by some of the most indefatigable observers, that they 

 do not acquire sucking-disks and their parasitic economy 

 until after the sixth moult. 



Beetle destroying Ten-weeks' Stock. — Can you suggest a 

 remedy under the following circumstances : — My ten-weeks' 

 stock (?ame up regularly and grew very well until three 

 weeks back, when it was coming into blossom ; it was then 

 suddenly attacked by myriads of a little jumping beetle, 

 some of which I have secured and send for you to examine. 

 All chance of blossom seems gone; the leaves, as well as the 

 flowers, being eaten by this miserable little wretch, which is 

 no bigger than a flea. I have killed thousands, by shaking 

 the stock over a shallow basin of hot water, in which they die 

 instantly and float on the surface ; but more remain behind, 

 and the cry is still " they come." — E. E. N. 



The beetles were immediately dispatched to Dr. Power, 

 who thus courteously replies to my request for a name: — 

 "The Haltica is Phyllotreta poecilocerus, of Waterhouse's 

 Catalogue ; obscurella. III., of Crotch : it is very common 

 everywhere. — J. A. Potver.''^ The ten- weeks' stock (Cheiran- 

 Ihus annuus) is a native of the South of Europe, and was 

 introduced as a garden annual one hundred and forty years 

 ago. There is no plant more familiar, and none more 

 universally cultivated. In the South of England it is difficult 

 to find a cottage-garden which is not decorated with the 

 bright flowers of this favourite. The Phyllotreta is a native of 

 this country, like the turnip Haltica, or "turnip-fly," as it is 

 very erroneously called; but it would remain unnoticed, did 

 we not provide it with a more agreeable esculent than it finds 

 in the hedge-rows. 



Entomologists in France. — On the w^rapper of the July 

 'Entomologist' I gave the following scraps of news received 

 from France, too late for insertion in due order; they are all 

 extracted from the 'Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques :' — 

 " The second siege, by which Paris has suffered so much, has 

 spared the persons of entomologists, but has utterly annihi- 

 lated, or greatly damaged, many of their collections and 

 libraries. Dr. Laboulbene, who resided in the rue du Bac, 



