Surface Cater pi Uars . 
187 
hand, and especially on bracken, if there be any in the 
immediate neighbourhood. The treatment for asparagus 
beetle would probably destroy many of the caterpillars ; but 
there is a further point worth remembering, namely, that the 
insect lives through the winter as a glossy-black chrysalis an 
inch or so under the surface of the soil, so that something can 
be done to prevent the moth ever coming out in the following 
summer. A heavy dressing of salt, often given to this plant 
in the ordinary course of cultivation, would probably kill many 
chrysalids, or the surface earth might be removed to a depth 
of about two inches and buried deeply. 
Surface Caterpillars. 
Every year many complaints are received of the depredations 
of these troublesome creatures, and it often happens that the 
real cause of injury is overlooked, and some quite innocent 
insect — generally the 
grub of the ladybird — is 
accused in the place of 
the true malefactor. 
Ladybird grubs, as 
though conscious of rec- 
titude, disdain to hide 
away, and when the 
farmer finds them in 
large numbers on failing 
turnips it is only natural 
that he should regard 
them with suspicion. 
They are, of course, only 
there to feed upon green- 
fly, and are not merely 
harmless, but extremely 
useful. 
If the injury takes the 
form of large excavations 
in the roots, or the tops of some of the plants are bitten entirely 
off, the real culprit is pretty sure to be the “surface caterpillar, 
though in the daytime not a single specimen may be visible. 
These creatures are the grubs of nocturnal moths, two of the 
commonest of which are figured in the accompanying wood-cut. 
They fly readily to a light— a habit which makes their 
appearance familiar to most people. The big biown moths 
which come in through the open window on summer nights, 
belong to this group. 
The eggs are laid in the early summer, near the roots ot the 
farm crops they attack, or of cruciferous weeds, and the 
. 1 — A, Agrotis segetum , female. B, A. exdarna- 
tionis, female. C, Larvae of A. segetum. 
