124 ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1SG1. 



drought, they lived and multiplied to a most injurious extent. 

 Nearly every plant cultivated by the farmer suffered severely by 

 these pests : turnips, wheat, barley, oats, beans, the grasses, and 

 clovers, all being more or less affected and injured. 



The crop of turnips in this district was perhaps the worst 

 for many years past, and was still further deteriorated by the 

 attacks of insects. Immense numbers of caterpillars sheltered 

 underneath the bulbs, in which they cut large holes. These 

 appeared to be what are called "surface grubs," and the larva? 

 of moths, of the genera Mamestra, Agrotis, Triphaena, and Plusia ; 

 all great pests of the Brassicm. So numerous were these grubs, 

 that a dozen or more would be found near a single turnip. 

 Another destroyer of the turnip was a footless grub, of one quar- 

 ter to half an inch in length, pointed before and truncate behind, 

 quite white, with jet black mandibles. This, which I take to be 

 a Dipterous larva, had eaten into the crown of the turnip, between 

 the leaves, and then directly downwards, forming holes as large 

 as a stout knitting needle ; and as from four to a dozen of them 

 would be found in each bulb, they caused sad destruction by 

 admitting air and moisture, which soon caused the turnip to 

 decay. But perhaps the greatest enemies of all were the 

 enormous swarms of Aphides which were found on the under- 

 side of the turnip leaves, and which, extracting their juices, 

 caused the foliage of whole fields to become yellow. I had some 

 small Swedes brought me for examination, each of which was 

 literally covered by thousands of Aphides, and which emitted a 

 most unpleasant odour. I think the species was that described 

 by Curtis, in his " Farm Insects," fig. 68, as Aphis Rapce (known 

 also as the Aphis vastator, Smee), and which is very nearly allied 

 to, if indeed it is not identical with, Aphis humili, Sch., (Koch, 

 Pflanzenlause Aphiden, 114, figs. 152-154.) The perfect insects 

 were pretty uniform in colour ; but the larvae, pupae, and wing- 

 less ones, were very variable, being dirty white, yellow, pink, or 

 green, or all intermixed. Hosts of winged males and females 

 were on wing in the last week of September, swarming even in 

 the streets of Newcastle. Under such an accumulation of ene- 

 mies, one cannot wonder at the general complaints that turnips 



