832 



OPEN FLOWER-GARDEN. 



feet ; the males much smaller than the females. 

 The eggs are laid in great numbers, and are 

 fastened by a glutinous substance to the bark 

 of the tree, and even in the web, and are of a 

 light pinky colour. 



The orange upper-winged moth (Xanthea 

 croceago) feeds upon almost every species of 

 querciis, and often greatly destroys the foliage 

 of the more ornamental sorts in our arboretums 

 and shrubberies. In its perfect state it measures 

 from an inch to an inch and a half from tip to 

 tip of the wings, which are of an orange or 

 yellowish-red colour, streaked and spotted with 

 brown. The fore wings are marked with six 

 equidistant white spots ; the hind wings are 

 of a dirty white, with a dusky spot. The cater- 

 pillar is yellowish, interspersed with white dots 

 and angulated dark markings along the back, 

 and oblique ones on the sides. The moth ap- 

 pears to survive the winter, being often found 

 during the winter months. Hand-picking the 

 caterpillars, and catching the moths on the wing, 

 seem to be the only means of reducing their 

 numbers. 



Bibio marci (Tipula marci Linn.) has been 

 already described, p. 591, fig. 244, and we refer 

 to it here as it is often found to be a formidable 

 enemy in beds of ranunculuses, and also in 

 flower-pots, devouring the roots and often de- 

 stroying the whole plant. Being gregarious, liv- 

 ing in groups of a hundred or more, accounts for 

 the rapid disappearance of the tubers in ranun- 

 culus beds, into which they are probably in the 

 first instance introduced along with cow-dung, in 

 which they abound. It should therefore never be 

 used in such beds until thoroughly decomposed. 



The March moth, Anisopteryx {Geometra) ces- 

 cularia. — The caterpillar, which is of a green 

 colour, with pale longitudinal lines along the 

 body, is found in June feeding on the leaves of 

 the horse-chestnut. The moth appears about the 

 middle of March. The males, when their wings 

 are extended, measure about an inch and a half. 

 The upper wings are pale glossy ashy brown, 

 having a broad dusky band across them, edged 

 with a white toothed line. The lower wings are 

 paler than the upper ones, with a dark spot 

 and slightly- marked bands. The females are 

 destitute of wings. Of the economy of this 

 insect we know very little, and we believe the 

 only mode of lessening their numbers will be by 

 picking up the caterpillars when they appear. 



The large mallow moth Larentia {Geometra) 

 cervinaria, although not a very common insect, 

 is occasionally found on mallows, lavateras, and 

 hollyhocks. The perfect insect measures nearly 

 2 inches across its expanded upper wings. The 

 upper wings are reddish brown, with bands of 

 dark brown, edged with white. The lower 

 wings are pale brown, with bands somewhat 

 similar to those in the upper. The eggs are 

 laid on various plants of the natural order Mal- 

 vaceae, but chiefly on Malva and Lavatera. The 

 caterpillars come forth in June and July, of 

 a dull green colour, with darker lines of the 

 same down the sides, dots of white running 

 across them. 



Curculio sidcatus (Otiorkynchus sulcatus). — 

 During the winter months the grubs of this 



beetle do much mischief amongst succulent 

 plants both in greenhouses and out of doors, by 

 devouring the roots, and hence causing the 

 plants to assume a yellow sickly appearance. In 

 its grub state this curculio is about half an inch 

 in length, of a dirty white colour, fleshy, bristly, 

 without legs, but furnished with tubercles at 

 the sides, which aid it in moving. The grubs 

 enter their chrysalis state about the end of May, 

 becoming white, and having the appearance of 

 a beetle stripped of its wings. The perfect in- 

 sect appears about the end of June, in form of 

 a small beetle scarcely half an inch in length, 

 colour black, slightly glossy, granulated over so 

 as to resemble shagreen. Care should be taken 

 to hunt for and catch this insect in the mouth 

 of June, for if allowed to deposit their eggs in 

 the ground or the pots, they will breed to a 

 most vexatious extent. In the case of valuable 

 plants when attacked, it will be advisable to 

 shake the soil completely from the roots, and 

 to replant or repot them in new and fresh soil. 



The mole - cricket, churr-worm, jarr-worm, 

 eve-churr, or earth-crab (Gryllotalpa europcea 

 Rec, Gryllus gryllotalpa Lin., Gryllotalpa vul- 

 garis Latr.) — for by all these names is this ex- 

 traordinary insect known in one part of the 

 kingdom or another — from its subterranean 

 habits, commits sad havoc in culinary gardens 

 and even corn-fields, and should it find its way 

 into the florist's beds of choice flowers it causes 

 him great annoyance. It lives chiefly under 

 ground, and is perpetually on the move, bur- 

 rowing like the mole, and even, like it, throwing 

 up heaps of earth from its tunnels. The full- 

 grown insect measures fully 2 inches in length, 

 and 4 lines in breadth. Colour dark brown; 

 head rather smallish, longish, and oval, which it 

 can retract within the prothorax and protrude 

 at pleasure ; thorax very small, like that of a 

 crab ; wing-cases leathery, traversed by large 

 and small veins, and attached to hinder part of 

 the prothorax. The insect, when its wings are 

 extended, assumes a widely different appear- 

 ance from what might be expected from seeing 

 it when they are folded up. It has six feet, the 

 two fore ones of a peculiar form, short, broad, 

 and very strong, resembling the fore-feet of the 

 mole, and adapted to the same purpose. It is 

 asserted by M. Rosel that this insect is capable 

 of pushing forward a weight of 6 pounds with 

 its fore-feet on an even surface, from which 

 some idea may be formed of its power in digging 

 its burrows. The female lays her eggs, to the 

 number of two or three hundred, in the month 

 of June, after having hollowed out a place in 

 the ground about a foot under the surface. The 

 young are hatched in July or August, and com- 

 mence immediately to feed on the roots of 

 plants. In October and November they bury 

 themselves deeper in the soil for warmth, 

 and come again nearer the surface in March 

 and April. The means recommended for their 

 destruction are various. The most feasible, 

 however, is to dig up their nests in June or 

 July, when hundreds of eggs may be destroyed 

 in an instant. 



Cucullia verbasci (Noctua verbasci). — The 

 caterpillars of this moth are found from the end 



