MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON TRUCK-CROP INSECTS. 97 
Since the publication of the writer's preliminary articles on the 
water-cress leaf -beetle and sowbug in the present bulletin (pp. 11-20) 
it has been noticed that earlier accounts of the related European 
PJuedon betulce L., known as the mustard beetle and ' : blackjack, * ? 
were made by Miss E. A. Ormerod, who furnished several references 
with illustrations in her manual." From this account it appears that 
injury was first noticed, at least in England, in 1854, to white mustard 
crops near Ely. Another account of this insect is given in the same 
author's report for 1886. b 
The water-cress sowbug. — April 16, 1907, Mr. C. A. Killinger. Ship- 
pensburg, Pa., sent specimens of the water-cress sowbug (Mancasellus 
brachyurus Harg.) in different stages, stating that it was destroying 
his water cress, working on the leaves under water, cutting them close 
to the stem. If the cress is light or does not grow fast, as happens in 
winter, they also work on the stems and roots, cutting the plants loose 
and causing them to float downstream. Our correspondent thought 
that this species was brought to that section from Virginia. 
Experiments conducted with lime in a small spring the previous 
summer succeeded in killing most of the sowbugs, but plenty of them 
remained at the time of writing. The lime, however, burned the 
cress, causing it to turn yellow. 
December 23, 1908, Mr. F. W. Houston, a grower and shipper of 
water cress at Lexington, Va., wrote of this species, inquiring for 
literature and a remed}^. He stated that he had a spring under culti- 
vation that was infested with the water-cress sowbug, and later — 
March 11, 1909 — he sent specimens. In this connection he wrote as 
follows : 
I have a spring under cultivation which has heen infested by them for several 
years. I fought them for a time by putting the water into ditches and exposing 
the rest of the cress bed to the sun. In these ditches I would make frequent 
applications of lime; this, of course, was done during the early summer, after 
the shipping season closes. It seems to kill all of the sowbugs. but when I put 
the water into the beds and reset the cress, hauling it from an uninfected spring, 
it was not long until the " bugs " were again noticed, and in a short time they 
were as thick as ever. 
Mr. Houston was advised that in the ease of the old beds the water 
should be drawn or turned off and that the cress should be completely 
destroyed and the spring reset with uninfested ere—. 
a Manual of Injurious Insects and Methods of Prevention. London. 1890, 
pp. 151-156. 
6 Report on injurious Insects for 1886, pp. 59-60. 
