158 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Hedon near Hull, where it is very injurious, particularly in 

 light soils,) I have succeeded in breeding the fly, which 

 proves of that tribe of the Linnean genus Musca, now called 

 Anthomyia. Being apparently undescribed, and new to my 

 valued correspondent Count Hoffmansegg to whom I sent it, 

 I call it A, Ceparum. — The diuretic asparagus, towards the 

 close of the season, is sometimes rendered unpalateable by 

 the numerous eggs of the asparagus beetle (Crioceris As- 

 paragi), and its larvae feed upon the foliage after the heads 

 branch out. — Cucumbers with us enjoy an immunity from 

 insect assailants ; but in America they are deprived of this 

 privilege, an unascertained species, called there the cucumber- 

 fly, doing them great injury.^ — The plants of spinach are 

 sometimes eaten bare by the blackish-brown caterpillars of 

 the lovely little moth Glyphypteryx RcBsellaP' — Horse-radish 

 (as well as the cabbage tribe) is attacked by the larvae of 

 another moth, Mesographe forficalis.^ — And to name no 

 more, mushrooms, which are frequently cultivated and much 

 in request, often swarm with the maggots of various Diptera 

 and Coleoptera, 



The insects just enumerated are partial in their attacks, 

 confining themselves to one or two kinds of our pulse or 

 other vegetables. But there are others that devour more 

 indiscriminately the produce of our gardens ; and of these in 

 certain seasons and countries w^e have no greater and more 

 universal enemy than the caterpillar of a moth called by 

 entomologists Plusia Gamma^ from its having a character 

 inscribed in gold on its primary wings, which resembles that 

 Greek letter. This creature aflbrds a pregnant instance of the 

 power of Providence to let loose an animal to the work of 

 destruction and punishment. Though common with us, it is 

 seldom the cause of more than trivial injury ; but in the year 

 1735 it was so incredibly multiplied in France as to infest 

 the whole country. On the great roads, wherever you cast 

 your eyes, you might see vast numbers traversing them in 

 all directions to pass from field to field ; but their ravages 



J Barton in Philos. Magaz. ix. 62. 



2 Kbllar's Ins. inj. to Gardeners, &c. p. 157. 3 Ibid. p. 155. 



