82 



juices, as their name implies, are exceedingly blistering, and soon raise a water blister 

 on the skin if applied to it. Hence they are often used locally as a substitute for the 

 Spanish Fly. 



The presence and voracity of these Blister-beetles make it very difficult to keep a bed 

 of potatoes clean by hand-picking of any kind, but of course Paris Green or London 

 Purple is as destructive to them as to the Colorado Beetle, and forms the best remedy. 

 They are so wary that it is almost enough to clear the plants if one walks between the 

 rows so that one's shadow falls on them. They may be seen dropping to the ground in a 

 shower. 



Though these three species are so abundant here, I have not seen a specimen of the 

 fourth member of the group, the Ash-grey Blister-beetle ( L. cinerea ), this summer, and a 

 row of English Broad Windsor Beans which I planted as an experiment were quite un- 

 touched by them. The late Mr. Walsh says he never could grow these beans at Bock 

 Island, 111., because of the swarms of Ash-grey Blister-beetles which ate them up. My 

 broad beans were, however, badly injured by numbers of a small black hopping beetle, 

 the name of which I do not know, but which treated their leaves exactly as the Turnip 

 Flea Beetle treats the seed leaves of the young turnips. It was, however, much larger. 



Not to paint the Black Blister-beetle any blacker than is just right, I must add that 

 I not long ago found a swarm of them devouring the flowers of the great rag-weed (Am- 

 h'osia trifida ). One of them, which I watched for some time, cleaned the whole of the 

 flowers from one of the involucres of the raceme in a few seconds. 



The Colorado Beetle. 



The following extract from an English newspaper, the Bristol Mercury, will show 

 how carefully the Colorado Beetle is looked after in England, and how great a risk he 

 runs if he sets foot within the United Kingdom. He is far more sternly outlawed than 

 was Kobin Hood or Smith O'Brien, and if only a suspicion of his presence is felt, all, 

 from the Privy Council downwards, are up in arms to crush him with all the terrors of 

 the law. Let us hope they will succeed in making the country too hot for even the ten- 

 lined Spearman : — 



" Mr. Borlase put a question as to the discovery of a Colorado Beetle in South Devon. 



"Mr. Mundella answered, saying the Colorado Beetle was in his department. (A 

 laugh.) He then gave the facts of the discovery of a live Colorado Beetle in the possession 

 of a man at Yealmpton, who refused to give it up. Upon instructions from the depart- 

 ment he was prosecuted under the Destructive Insects Act of 1877, and fined the mitigated 

 penalty of <£5, he pleading ignorance of the law and agreeing to the destruction of the 

 beetle." 



Entomological Notes for the Summer of 1881. 



I came only last year to the premises where I am now residing, and though I had a 

 small crop of cherries, they were so badly infested with the weevil (C anotrachelus nenu- 

 phar) that only a few quarts could be found free from the grub and fit for canning. This 

 year a fair crop was promised ; the spring was late and the danger of the frost little. I 

 proposed, therefore, to make war upon the enemy, and as soon as the blossom was over 

 prepared a large sheet of cheese-cloth, and for about three weeks jarred the trees before 

 breakfast almost every morning. As the result, I have novs^ nearly 2,000 weevils peacefully 

 reposing in a bottle, after a composing draught of benzine. Only about 10 per cent, of 

 my cherries this year were unfit for use. I carried the war into the orchard, and, simply 

 by way of experiment, jarred some of the early apple trees and captured a great many of 

 my enemies. I am more than repaid for my labours both on the cherry and apple trees, 

 by the quality of the apples. When last year, with a larger crop, I only obtained knotty, 

 gnarly fruit, I have this year round, smooth, well-shaped apples. I have never heard 

 that anything has been done, at least in this neighbourhood, to trap the weevils on the 

 apple trees. Those who live in the north have no idea of the mischief wrought here by 

 the weevil in the orchards. 



