MUSTARD BEETLES. 
59 
smaller and of a duller or more blackish green, are often mistaken 
for it. 
These points are of use practically, as they place some of the 
methods by which the Mustard crop is to be saved from injury on 
quite a new footing. Turnip Flea-beetle at least can be kept down by 
methods of cultivation and treatment which are well known, and 
applicable to Mustard as well as to Turnips, and thus the complete 
ruin of whole fields of Mustard in its first growth might be prevented. 
We have no knowledge, as yet, of how to destroy Meligethes when on 
the flowering heads; but the fact that this beetle also infests the flower- 
heads of Turnip, Eape, and Cabbage, and likewise of Charlock, may 
be turned to account, both in rotation of crops and likewise in care to 
exterminate weeds which would foster it. 
In the following report I have first given the replies with which I 
have been favoured relating to the habits and means of prevention of 
ravage of the Mustard Beetle, which was the special subject of enquiry, 
and to these I have appended the life-histories and descriptions, with 
figures accompanying, of the four kinds of beetles mentioned above, of 
which three kinds infest the plant to a serious extent, and the fourth 
is found on it, and, judging by its habits on allied crops, probably 
injures the formed seed.* 
Where attack conies from. 
1 . —Where do the beetles which start the spring attack shelter in the 
winter ? As—down old Mustard-straw ; in straw used for 
rough thatch, &c. ; down pipes of reeds ; or in rubbish gene¬ 
rally ? Also—are beetles brought in seed ? 
The following observations show that the beetles shelter for the 
winter in a great variety of localities, as crannies in walls, gate-posts, 
or old wood; under bark, in the earth of hedge-banks, and of drain- 
banks ; in heaps of rubbish; amongst rough grass by marsh-ditches, 
and amongst feeds, and down the pipes of reeds. Also in the ends of 
the Mustard-stocks, and in the roots of the old Mustard-plants left on 
the land, and in rough shelters made of Mustard or other straw; and 
it is noted that, when sheltered in the Mustard-roots or stalks, or pipes 
of reeds, they appear to be quite uninjured by exposure to frost 
throughout the winter.— Ed. 
“ The beetles lie dormant in the winter in Mustard-stalks and 
reeds, and in all kinds of rubbish, and sometimes in the crevices of 
old woods.”— Alfred Fuller. 
*• As it is necessary, in order to keep the series of subjects unbroken, to distribute 
the various portions of the contributors’ reports under the headings of the enquiries 
to which each paragraph is a reply, I have appended the name of the sender to 
each of the communications, and likewise given it in the list of contributors. 
