196 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



and tender. We should not be surprised to see, 

 ere long, a hot-water apparatus, somewhat simi- 

 lar to Mr Fleming's excellent machine for de- 

 stroying weeds in walks, in use in every garden 

 for the destruction of insects alone. 



Bombyx tubricipeda (Linn.), the spotted buff- 

 moth, fig. 73, is particularly destructive : no plant 



Fig. 73. 



SPOTTED BUFF-MOTH AND CATERPILLAR, 



Natural size. 



seems to come amiss to it ; it feeds on the tur- 

 nip, horse-radish, carrot, scarlet-runner, and even 

 mint does not escape its ravages. In the months 

 of May and June they are observed in pairs on 

 walls, plants, &c, when they should be destroyed. 

 It is of a pale ochre or buff colour ; antennae 

 black, bipectinate in the male ; the eyes, feelers, 

 and legs black, with the exception of the thighs, 

 which are orange ; tarsi and hinder tibia buff ; 

 body buff ; the upper wings have one or more 

 dots, with two black spots upon the margin ; it 

 is, however, very variable in its markings, vary- 

 ing from whitish buff to deep ochre, with large 

 black spots. The eggs, which the female de- 

 posits on the leaves of plants, are whitish, 

 round, and smooth. The caterpillars, when first 

 hatched, are of a yellowish white, with very few 

 long hairs. When of full size, they are about 

 an inch and a half long ; they are then of a dark 

 green, with a white line down each side. The 

 stigmata white, and covered with reddish-brown 

 hairs. It has six sharp-pointed pectoral feet, 

 eight on the abdomen, and two hind ones, of a 

 more fleshy nature. 



Aphis brassicce (figs. 42, 43), the Aphis floris- 

 rapge of some entomologists, is also destructive 

 to turnip crops, and indeed to most plants of 

 the same natural order. 



Aphis dubia (the black-spotted turnip-leaf 

 plant-louse) is often found in company with A. 

 rapes on the under sides of the leaves of turnips. 

 Both these species resemble each other closely, 

 only in A. dubia the colour is a dull green, sha- 

 greened ; horns dusky at their extremities, as are 

 also the tops of the thighs, shanks, and feet; the 

 eyes and ocelli are black, as are two patches on 

 the collar, and several transverse broken strips 

 along the back. 



Drosopkila flava (the yellow turnip leaf-miner), 

 fig. 74, is a minute fly, which lays its eggs on the 



leaves. " The maggots produced from them eat 

 into the pulp, and form large whitish blisters on 

 Fig. 74. 



YELLOW-TURNTP LEAF-MINER, 



the upper side. When full-grown, they are pale 

 green, and change to chestnut-coloured pupae, 

 with two small horns at the head, and from these 

 the flies are produced. These are ochreous, with 

 black hairs, and two little feathered horns. The 

 eyes are black ; there are three ochreous strips 

 down the trunk; the six legs and two balancers 

 are yellowish and downy ; the two wings are large 

 and irridescent. The larvae of this insect are de- 

 stroyed by two little parasitic hymen opterous 

 flies, the Ceraphron niger and the Microgaster 

 virides. 



Ceutorhynchus pleurostigma (the turnip gall- 

 weevil) effects the disfiguration, at least, of the 

 turnip bulb, by " the female piercing a hole in 

 the rind of the turnip with her proboscis, and 

 depositing an egg in it ; and the young maggot, 

 which is fat and whitish, often of a bright flesh- 

 colour, lives on the substance of the bulb," caus- 

 ing those excrescences which are so often ob- 

 served on turnips, particularly in dry seasons. 

 The general appearance of this insect is that of 

 a small black seed, and, excepting in colour, it 

 resembles the turnip-seed weevil, which latter is 

 of a grey colour. 



Triphoena pronuba (the great yellow under- 

 wing), fig. 75, in its caterpillar state, is one of 



GREAT YELLOW UNDER WING MOTH, CATERPILLAR, 



and chrysalis. Natural size. 



