114 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



largest, with a single nervure curved at the 

 centre, where there is an obscure black fascid, 

 with a black spot at the extremity; inferior 

 wings smaller, with a central longitudinal nerv- 

 ure ; six legs, rather long, black, and powdered 

 with white; feet long, and composed of two 

 equal joints, terminated with two very fine 

 curved claws, with a hook between them. These 

 little creatures seem not only to withstand the 

 cold, but even to multiply during the winter ; 

 for Eeaumur says he found them in every state 

 in December and January, as he had done in 

 summer ; and this will account for their extra- 

 ordinary increase, which, from the small num- 

 ber of eggs laid by each female, appears at first 

 to be inexplicable. Moreover, in less than a 

 month the insects undergo all their changes — 

 from the deposition of the egg to the pairing of 

 the perfect progeny ; it is therefore possible to 

 have twelve generations in a year. Reaumur 

 calculated that a single female might, in the 

 course of a year, give origin to 200,000 descen- 

 dants." 



The best mode of lessening their numbers is 

 to gather the infected leaves during winter and 

 spring and burn them. Any choice plant at- 

 tacked by them might be fumigated with tobacco 

 smoke; and, indeed, small crops might be covered 

 with canvass, and undergo the same operation ; 

 but such and all other means hitherto tried 

 would be impossible with crops upon a large 

 scale, as the brassicaceous tribe in general are. 



In some seasons they are more destructive 

 than in others, and would become a frightful 

 scourge to man, were it not that they have their 

 natural enemies in a species of Cynips, and one 

 also of Acarus, which feed upon them. 



Anthomyia brassicce of Bouche (the cabbage- 

 fly). — The larvae of this insect live underground, 

 in the roots and stems of most of the Brassica 

 tribe, eating passages through them, and causing 

 them to rot. It is one of the most destructive of 

 insects, and is thus described in " Gardeners' 

 Chronicle," 1841, by the authority above cited : 

 " The male is darker, but of a brighter grey, with 

 black bristles ; there is a black stripe half-way 

 down the middle of the thorax, and a curved one 

 on each side ; the body has a more decided black 

 stripe down the centre, and the segments are 

 marked by a line of the same colour ; legs and 

 antennae blackish ; wings a little smoky. The 

 female is pale ashy grey ; the eyes remote, with 

 a dark chestnut-coloured stripe on the crown ; 

 the wings are similar in tint to those of the 

 foregoing species, but 

 the insect is considera- 

 bly smaller, and this is 

 the only striking diffe- 

 rence between the fe- 

 males." 



Ceutorhynchus sulci- 

 collis of Gyllenhal, fig. 

 47, the Curculio pleuro- 

 stigma of Marsham, de- 

 posits its eggs beneath 

 the outer covering of 

 the stems of cabbages, 

 as may be discovered 



CURCULIO PLEUKOSTIGMA. during WHlter aild 



spring by the appearance of numerous galls or 

 small excrescences covering the stems close to the 

 ground. Those are produced by the deposition 

 of the eggs of this insect. On opening these 

 galls, a small white maggot will be found within, 

 without legs, the body being curved and fleshy, 

 the head is palish orange, with chestnut-coloured 

 jaws, the tips of which are black, as are also the 

 two small eyelets, one on each side of the head. 

 These larvae, when fully grown, quit the galls 

 and secret themselves in the soil, and remain 

 there to undergo their transformation, first to 

 the pupa state, and next to the perfect weevil, 

 being about one-eighth of an inch long, of a 

 black shining colour, slightly covered with grey- 

 ish hair, the head and pro-thorax coarsely punc- 

 tured ; the cases of the wings have ten lines 

 impressed on each, the interstices rough, the 

 under side of the body covered with scales of a 

 buff colour. The best remedy in the case of 

 young plants is, as soon as the galls appear, to 

 pull them up and burn them, by which means a 

 riddance is made of the brood. To cut off these 

 galls weakens the plants greatly. It is much 

 the safest way to burn the plants at once. 



Amongst other insect enemies that attack the 

 cabbage tribe, we have reason to suspect one or 

 two species of 

 Fig. 48. lulus (snake mil- 



lipedes), fig. 48, 

 as they are often 

 found in great 

 numbers buried 

 in and feeding 

 upon the roots 

 in a putrescent 

 state. They may 

 be detected in 

 spring, in the roots of such cabbages as have sud- 

 denly died when about half-grown. When in that 

 state, if the plants are pulled up, the roots will be 

 found in a state of decay just under the surface 

 of the soil, and in the decayed part multitudes of 

 millipedes will be found. The editor of the 

 "Cottage Gardener" queries their beingthe cause, 

 and remarks, vol. ii. p. 139, "The question 

 arises, Is this insect the cause of the disease by 

 wounding and eating the bark of the plant ? or 

 does the parent wound the bark, depositing her 

 eggs in the wound, and when wet, and the irri- 

 tation produced by the larvae, complete the fatal 

 wounding'? or does the decay first arise, and 

 then this millipede comes to it to feed upon the 

 putrid part, and the mites (Acari), which fre- 

 quent the places where decaying vegetable 

 matter occurs 1 ?" This question appears as yet 

 undecided. Mr Johnston's opinion is quite in 

 accordance with our own, namely, that this 

 " lulus does not attack the cabbage whilst this 

 is healthy, but that the wound may be occa- 

 sioned by the parent millipede, and that the 

 young ones feed on the mites which frequent 

 the decaying wound. The millipede, lulus pul- 

 chellus," represented in our figure, " which is 

 oftenest met with in these circumstances, is 

 of a sandy-grey colour, having on each side a row 

 of small crimson spots. The number of legs 

 varies with the age of the insect, but the great- 

 est number observed in lulus pulcliellus has 



SNAKE MILLIPEDE, 



Natural size and magnified. 



