160 INDIEECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



froth frog-hopper {Aphrophora spumarid), aided by the saw- 

 fly of the rose {Hylotoma Rosce), as well as others of the same 

 family, contributes to check the luxuriance of its growth, 

 and to diminish the splendour of its beauty ; but all these 

 evils are nothing compared with the wholesale devastation 

 sometimes made on the roots of this shrub by the larvas of 

 cockchafers, which in two years destroyed at Chenevieres sur 

 Maine in France, 100,000 rose trees in M. Yibert's nurseries, 

 which he was forced to abandon. Reaumur has given the 

 history of a fly (^Merodon Narcissi) whose larva feeds in safety 

 within the bulbs of the Narcissus, and destroys them ; and 

 also of another, though he neglects to describe the species, 

 which tarnishes the gay parterre of the florist, whose delight 

 is to observe the freaks of nature exhibited in the various 

 many-coloured streaks which diversify the blossom of the tulip, 

 by devouring its bulbs. ^ — Sedums, and other out-of-door 

 plants in pots, are often greatly injured by having the upper 

 part of their roots gnawed by the larvae of a beetle, Otio- 

 rhynchus sulcatusp- — Ray notices another insect mentioned by 

 Swammerdam, probably Bihio hortulana, which he calls the 

 deadliest enemy of the flowers of the spring. He accuses it 

 of despoiling the gardens and fields of every blossom, and so 

 extinguishing the hope of the year.^ But you must not take 

 up a prejudice against an innocent creature, even under the 

 warrant of such weighty authority ; for the insect which our 

 great naturalist has arraigned as the author of such devasta- 

 tion is scarcely guilty, if it be at all a culprit, in the degree 

 here alleged against it. As it is very numerous early in the 

 year, it may perhaps discolour the vernal blossoms, but its 

 mouth is furnished with no instrument to enable it to devour 

 them. Lastly, to omit various other enemies of our parterres, 

 as the wire-worm, &c., I may mention that universal pest, the 

 earwig, against which the florist is obliged to use various 

 precautions to protect his choicest carnations, pinks, and 

 dahlias from its ravages. 



1 Reaum. iv. 499. 



2 Westwood in Loudon's Gardener's Mag. 1 837. No. 85. 



3 Rai, Hist. Ins. Prolegom. xi. 



