INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 141 



I have not observed that oats suffer from insects, except 

 from the universal subterranean destroyer of the grasses, the 

 wire-worm, of which I shall give you a more full account 

 hereafter ; and occasionally from an Aphis. 



Buckwheat (^Polygonum fagopyrum), a grain little cultivated 

 with us, except as food for pheasants, but which is an im- 

 portant crop on the Continent on poor sandy soils, is some- 

 times wholly cut off, by the larvae of a moth (^Agrotis iritici), 

 which afterwards devours the rye sown to replace the buck- 

 wheat; and millety also a considerable continental crop, is 

 occasionally much damaged by the larvae of another moth 

 (^Botys silacealis), which, eating into the stem of the plants, 

 causes them to wither and die.^ 



The only important grain that now remains unnoticed is 

 the maize, or Indian corn. Besides the chintz bug-fly, a 

 little beetle^ {Phaleria cornuta) appears to devour it; and it 

 has probably other unrecorded enemies. The Guinea corn 

 of America {Holcus bicolor), as well as other kinds of grain, 

 is, according to Abbott, often much injured by the larva of 

 a moth, {Noctua frugiperda Smith,) Avhich feeds upon the 

 main shoot. 



Next to grain pulse is useful to us, both when cultivated in 

 our gardens and in our fields. Peas and beans, which form 

 so material a part of the produce of the farm, are exposed to 

 the attack of a numerous host of insect depredators ; indeed 

 the former, on account of their ravages, is one of the most 

 uncertain of our crops. The animals from which in this 

 country both these plants suffer most are the Aphides, com- 

 monly called leaf-lice, but which properly should be de- 

 nominated plant-lice. As almost every animal has its pecu- 

 liar louse, so has almost every plant its peculiar plant-louse; 

 and, next to locusts, these are the greatest enemies of the 

 vegetable world, and, like them, are sometimes so numerous 

 as to darken the air.* The multiplication of these little 



1 Kollar on Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. 102 — 110. 



2 This insect was taken in maize by Mr. Sparshall of Norwich. 



3 Smith's Abbott's Insects of Georgia, 191. 



4 I say this upon the authority of Mr. Wolnough of HoUesley (late of 

 Boyton) in Suffolk, an intelligent agriculturist, and a most acute and accurate 

 observer of nature. 



