278 
Mustard Beetles. 
posts, and of posts, rails or farm buildings. They are to be 
found in rough grass and rushes which grow by the side of 
marsh-ditches, and also in the earth at the bottom of the hedge- 
rows of fields in which mustard has been grown the previous 
year, likewise in the earth of drain-banks. They also shelter 
" in all kinds of rubbish," in " heaps of rubbish " — " in any- 
thing that will shelter them." 
As is the case with many other insects, the winter cold does 
not appear to injure them so long as they continue to lie in 
the shelters, which they have themselves chosen. It is stated, 
" they seem quite indifferent to frost, for though when you open the stalk 
they seem dead, they soon begin to move. Many of these stalks lying on 
the top of the land have been exposed to all the frosts of last winter." 
Likewise that, 
" they will live through the most severe winter in the pipes of the reeds and 
rushes in ditches and drains." 
Are beetles brought in seed ? 
Beetles are stated 
" to be frequently found in the seed when freshly threshed, but do not appear 
to remain long after ; " 
although a note is given of their being 
" found alive in sacks for two years after the seed has been threshed out." 
Other notes mention that the beetles have not been found, or 
have rarely been found, in seed ; and that if they were so found, 
the use of the common vitriol steep for wheat would destroy 
them. 
2. Upon what weeds or crops do the beetles feed till the 
mustard is ready for them ? As — charlock, and the like ; pr 
brook-lime, and other weeds found by ditches ? 
" In the spring you may find them on any kind of charlock, or pieces of 
mustard that may be about." 
Another observer says that 
" he is not aware of any plant they feed on earlier than mustard. Charlock 
comes about the same time as early sown seed " 
No mention is made of any plant being attacked earlier 
than mustard. In one report white mustard is noted as 
attacked by preference, then garden cabbage and horseradish. 
The list of plants regularly attacked comprises cabbage, 
kohl-rabi, cress, horseradish, and others of the CruciferaJ, or 
cabbage tribe. 
