INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 103 
many of them, they may seem to be defended by the earth that covers them, 
do not escape the attack of insect-enemies.—The carrot, which forms a 
valuable part of the crop of the sand-land farms in Suffolk, is often very 
much injured, as is also the parsnip, by a small centipede (Geophilus elec- 
fricus),and another polyped ( Polydesmus complanatus), which eat into yarious 
labyrinths the upper part of their roots; and they are both sometimes 
totally destroyed by the maggot of some dipterous insect, probably one of 
the Muscide. I had an opportunity of noticing this in the month of July, 
in the year’ 1812, in the garden of our valued friend the Rev. Revett 
Sheppard. of Offton in Suffolk. ‘The plants appeared many of them in a 
dying state ; and upon drawing them out of the ground to ascertain the 
cause, these larvae were found with their head and half of their body im- 
mersed in the root in an oblique direction, and in many instances they had 
eaten off the end of itt. The larva of a little moth (Hemilis daucella), 
described by Bouché, feeds upon the seeds both of the carrot and parsnip, 
covering the umbel with a silken web, and in some years destroys the 
whole crop.* 
America has made us no present more extensively beneficial, compared 
with which the mines of Potosi are worthless, than the potato. This in- 
valuable root, which is now so universally cultivated, is often, in this 
country, considerably injured by the two insects first mentioned as attack- 
ing the carrot, and also by the wire-worm. The Death’s-head hawk-moth 
(Acherontia Atropos) in its larva state feeds upon its leaves, though without 
much injury. In America it is said, to suffer much from two beetles 
(Cantharis cinerea and vittata), of the same genus with the blister-beetle * ; 
and another species, C. verticalis, in 1839, wholly destroyed the leaves of 
the crops at Volterra in Tuscany.4 In the island of Barbadoes some * 
hemipterous insect, supposed to be a Tetligonia, occasionally attacks them. 
In 1734 and 1735 vast swarms devoured almost every vegetable production 
of that island, particularly the potato, and thus occasioned such a failure 
of this excellent esculent, especially in one parish, that a collection was 
en throughout the island for the relief of the poor, whose principal food 
it forms. 
“The chief dependence of our farmers for the sustenance of their cattle 
in the winter is another most valuable root, the ¢urnip, the introduction of = 
which into our system of agriculture has added millions to our national 
reyenue ; and they have often to lament the loss and distress occasioned 
by a failure in this crop, of which these minor animals are the cause. On 
its first coming up, as soon as the cotyledon leaves are unfolded, a whole 
host of little jumping beetles, composed chiefly of Haltica Nemorum, 
called by farmers the jly® and black jack, but assisted also by other species, 
1 The larve above noticed were probably those of Psila Rose Meigen (Psilomyia 
Rose Macquart), which Kdéllar (p. 161.) describes as attacking carrots, residing 
chiefly in the main root near the end, 
2 Kollar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 155. 
5 Mlliger, Mag. i. 256. 
4 Passerini, quoted in Rev. Zool. 1841. p. 354. 
5 ‘The farmers would do well to change the name of this insect from turnip-fly to 
turnip-flea, since, from its diminutive size and activity in leaping, the latter name is 
much the most proper. The term, the fly, might with propriety be restricted to the 
Hop-aphis, and other species of the same genus; and this is the more desirable, be~ 
cause the hop is also subject to the attack of a Haltica, which the hop planters are 
judiciously beginning to distinguish by the name of the “flea.” 
i 4 
