Annual  Report  for  1909  of  the  Zoologist.  357 
there  were  a large  number  of  dead  moles  in  the  field  and  the 
beetles  were  engaged  in  burying  them  to  provide  food  for 
their  grubs. 
Another  unusual  circumstance  was  an  attack  on  a beet  crop 
by  the  garden  chafer,  Phyllopertha  horticola.  This  is  an  insect 
of  very  catholic  tastes,  and  well  known  in  the  garden,  where  it 
eats  the  leaves  of  various  trees,  but  I have  not  previously  met 
with  an  attack  by  it  upon  a farm  crop. 
Other  Farm  and  Garden  Crops. 
Most  of  the  pests  complained  of  in  this  section  were  Aphis 
or  blight  insects  of  various  species.  Many  of  them,  especially 
the  bean-aphis,  were  exceedingly  troublesome  during  the  past 
season. 
The  pea-thrips  apparently  did  much  less  harm  than  in  the 
previous  year.  This  might,  perhaps,  have  been  anticipated, 
for  thrips  attacks  are  usually  most  severe  in  particularly  dry 
weather.  Further  investigation  of  such  cases  as  were  met 
with  did  little  more  than  confirm  the  observations  given  in  the 
Zoologist’s  Report  for  1908.  Eggs  were  sought  for  in  vain  in 
any  other  situation  than  inside  the  stamen-sheath  of  the  flowers, 
but  here  they  could  be  met  with  without  fail  in  every  case  of 
attack.  As  before,  “ topping  ” the  peas  as  soon  as  the  disease 
was  noticed  had  a decidedly  beneficial  effect.  In  one  case  a 
large  number  of  Chalcid  flies  were  observed  on  the  pea  flowers. 
Many  of  these  flies  are  parasitic  on  insects,  and  it  is  highly 
likely  that  these  were  destroying  the  thrips  grubs  by  laying 
eggs  in  them,  though  this  was  not  absolutely  proved.  The 
peas  upon  which  they  were  seen  were  not  greatly  injured  by 
the  thrips,  and  produced  a good  crop. 
In  June  some  extensive  asparagus  beds  in  the  north  of 
England  were  found  to  be  suffering  from  a pest  which  appears 
to  be  entirely  new.  This  was  a “surface  caterpillar”  which 
was  identified  as  the  larva  of  the  moth  Agrotis  prcecox., 
and  the  identification  was  subsequently  verified  by  breeding 
out  some  of  the  caterpillars.  Its  natural  food  is  the  dwarf 
willow,  a plant  common  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  asparagus 
beds. 
Various  expedients  were  suggested  and  tried,  such  as  the 
eradication  of  the  food-plant  from  the  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, and  the  use  of  traps,  baited  with  dwarf  willow,  placed 
among  the  asparagus.  The  caterpillars,  however,  seemed  to  find 
the  succulent  asparagus  shoots  more  tempting  than  the  wild 
food-plant,  and  continued  their  depredations.  It  was  not  until 
the  plan  of  admitting  chickens  to  the  asparagus  beds  was  tried 
that  much  success  was  attained.  They  ate  the  grubs  greedily 
when  they  were  offered  to  them,  and  soon  began  to  search  for 
