Tlie Diamond-back Moth. 
607 
Berwickshire. He observed : " Until ten days ago the turnips 
appeared quite healthy and promised to be an abundant crop, but 
when walking through the fields at the end of the previous week 
he observed a few of the leaves drooping, and on examination found 
perforations caused by a small caterpillar." A large number of 
specimens were sent me, and about three-quarters of the under 
surface of the leaves might be estimated as destroyed on those least 
attacked, and amongst the caterpillars there was a larger proportion, 
still young, than amongst other samples which had been sent me 
from more southerly localities. Mr. Gibson noted that the crop 
was then disappearing by acres, and he feared would prove a com- 
plete failure. Also that the damage was not confined to Mr. 
Gibson's own farm, but various holdings in an area of three miles 
appeared to be similarly aSected. 
A few days later Mr. Gibson further mentioned : " All round the 
coast here the plague of caterpillars is very prevalent ; inland it 
is not so bad," and on August 8 Mr. Gibson mentioned that of one 
of his fields of 20 acres, there would not be 5 acres altogether left, 
and even these would not yield half a crop. Another field of 16 
acres would not have more than 4 acres in the whole field. 
On July 28, Mr. F. Norman, the Mayor of Berwick, reported 
wide spread of the caterpillar scourge in the vast expanse of 
turnips grown in the district, and noted the pitiable appearance 
on the previous evening, the leaves of acres upon acres being quite 
bleached, or frosted in appearance, from the light of the setting sun 
shining through the epidermis, or upper film of the surface of the 
leaf "which the caterpillars considerately leave intact." He also 
observed : " In this district the cocoon spinning has begun and is 
fast proceeding." 
Iladdingionshire. — On July 23, Mr. John Begbie, writing from 
Queenstonbank, Drem, a hamlet in N. Haddington, N.B., forwarded 
me leaves of swedes and yellow turnips showing caterpillar attack 
which had appeared a few days previously and already done much 
damage. Mr. Begbie reported that the whole of that district along 
the sea-coast from Dunbar as far as, say, about 13 miles from Edin- 
burgh, appeared to be attacked, but inland he had heard of no 
damage. Early swedes and yellows were noted as having escaped in 
some places. 
Fi/eshire. — The first publicly recorded observation of the appear- 
ance of the diamond-back moth during the past season was, as far 
as I am aware, that made by Mr. Andrew Balsillie, of St. Andrews, 
and communicated by him at the time to the Scotsman newspaper. 
Afterwards, on request for information, he wrote me that on the 
very last days of June an extraordinary number of small grey- 
brown moths were observed all along the eastern seaboai'd of the 
county of Fife infesting the turnip fields. Their appearance was 
coincident with a period of long-continued drought, and though the 
plants had brairded, they were making exceedingly little progress. 
On Monday, July 20, or as nearly as may be three weeks after the 
appearance of the moths, both swede and yellow turnips presented 
