90 
F. W. SILYESTEE-EEPOET ON INSECTS 
simply because they are not able to get to the outside of the stack. 
The scarcity of straw this season will ensure this remedy being 
taken advantage of. The time that we generally sow our autumn 
wheat is also another point in our favour, and probably will act as a 
preventive of future attack on wheat more than any other measure, 
because it is one which is usually carried out in the ordinary course 
of British husbandry. 
The ribbon-footed corn-fly ( Chlorops taniopus), so often con¬ 
founded with the Hessian fly, was reported by Mr. J. C. Mann, 
who wrote from The Grange, Bishop’s Stortford, that “ it swarms 
in my late barley and also in my neighbours’.” Several people 
have told me that their crops have suffered from this pest. Lt 
did much more harm generally as a corn-pest last year than the 
Hessian fly. 
Mr. John J. Willis has favoured me with the following interesting 
notes taken at Harpenden :—“ In the early summer months kitchen- 
gardens did so indifferently that green vegetables were more than 
usually scarce and expensive to purchase. The ‘fly’ ( Phyllotreta 
undulata ), and the various grubs, especially Agriotes lineatus , played 
sad havoc among the newly-germinated seeds; many onion, carrot, 
and turnip beds being completely destroyed. The grub of the 
click beetle ( Elater lineatus) was found very extensively among 
potato crops, and did much damage to mangel-wurzel plants. 
During the month of June root crops suffered as much from the 
effect of the ‘fly’ ( Phyllotreta undulata) as from the drought. Thin 
crops were therefore the rule, and in many instances the plant was 
almost entirely destroyed, and the land had to be ploughed up. 
In some cases turnip-seed was sown both in gardens and in the 
open fields as many as three times, and each time the plants were 
destroyed as soon as they appeared above ground. The large 
cabbage-white butterfly has been enormously abundant throughout 
the whole of the summer months, consequently the cabbage tribe 
of plants were entirely spoiled for culinary purposes. The crane- 
fly ( Tipula oleracea) was most plentiful during the months of July 
and August; in fact the meadows and pastures were teeming with 
it. Gardens, fields, and indeed almost every kind of soil, abounded 
with the grubs in September ; and unless they had been carefully 
sought for and destroyed every day, around young cabbage plants 
that were set out, the crops would have been seriously damaged. 
The bean-aphis and the turnip-aphis did serious evil to these crops, 
cabbages and Brussels sprouts being also much pestered with the 
latter. The very little wheat-midge ( Cecidomyia tritici) was ob¬ 
served this season. The apple-weevil was of frequent occurrence, 
and much fruit in consequence was entirely spoiled by its ravages. 
The gooseberry-sawfly ( Nematus ribesii) was less abundant than 
usual. Wasps and house-flies were most prolific, and earwigs 
existed in such numbers that many of the houses in this neigh¬ 
bourhood literally swarmed with them. Conservatories and green¬ 
houses were also much troubled with these insects ; they devoured 
grapes and whatever fruit could be had, then they attacked the 
