140 
I November, 
that district.” The Vice-Consul adds, that unless efficient measures are adopted it 
is probable that all agricultural Russia will eventually become the prey of these 
insects, causing privations hitherto little known in the country. He considers that 
the subject demands the serious attention of Europe, as Russia supplies so many 
countries with wheat, and hm* misfortune may raise the price of American produce. 
In his sixteenth Report on injurious insects (Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, vol. xviii), Curtis says respecting the larva? of the common 
Anisoplia ( Phyllopertha ) horticola , that they are often very destructive in pasture- 
land by consuming the roots of the grass, and that t lie best remedy is to "water the 
grass in the autumn with a mixture of one-tenth of gas-liquor to nine-tenths of 
water, which will do no harm to the grass but will extirpate the larva?. When gas- 
liquor cannot be obtained strong salt water may be used. In the spring, he says, land 
affected by these larva? should be broken up, as at that t ime they are near the surface 
and become an acceptable treat to rooks, starlings, thrushes, blackbirds, robins, Ac., 
and even sparrows have been known to gorge themselves with these larva? so that 
they were unable to fly. The perfect beetles eat roses and flowers of hawthorn, and 
then feed on wheat and oats. But although generally common the insects are not 
excessively numerous every year, and so it maj be with A. austriaca in Russia, and 
that the damage apprehended from it may be exaggerated. There is no fact relating 
to insects better known than that a species may be exceedingly abundant generally, 
in one year, and, contrary to expectation, be very scarce the next, or for several years 
afterwards. — J. W. Dopglas, 8, Beaufort Gardens, Lewdsham : August 22nd , 1880. 
P.S. — Since the foregoing was in type I am reminded that the ravages of 
Anisoplia austriaca in Russia formed the subject of a report by a Sub-Committee 
of the Entomological Society of London in 1878, which was drawn up for the use 
of Her Majesty’s Consul at Taganrog, who, in a communication to the Foreign 
Office, had adverted to the immense damage done by these and other beetles to the 
grain crops in several provinces of Southern Russia. The report of the Sub- 
committee (given at length in the Transactions of the Society for 1878 [Proceedings, 
p. 57], and noticed in this Magazine, vol. xv, p. 212), after alluding to the ap- 
pearance of enormous numbers of A. austriaca in the Banate, Hungary, in 1867 
— upwards of six millions of beetles being estimated to have been then destroyed 
by 100 men employed for the purpose — goes on to recommend as remedial measures, 
the rotation of crops, and the preservation of insectivorous birds ; and finally states 
that experience shows there is no reason to apprehend such a visitation every year. 
— J. W. D. 
Notes on some scarce Coleoptera. — In the August number of this magazine, p. 
60, ante, I recorded the capture of Euplectus punctatus, some years ago, in Sherwood 
Forest, by Mr. Matthews ; on August 27th, I took this beetle myself under bark of 
a rotten tree in its old locality ; I also got a specimen of Micropeplus tesserula, by 
sweeping at sunset. I had alw-ays supposed this to be a fen insect, but must have 
been mistaken. 
Among some beetles sent to me to name by Mr. T. N. Hart-Smith, of Marl- 
borough College, I found a specimen of Hydroporus marginatus : this is, I think, a 
new locality, it seems to be found both near the coast and inland ; it is probably 
often thrown away in mistake for E. litura, which it much resembles at first sight ; 
