OF INJURIOUS INSECTS. 
17 
but at about a mile distance it was troublesome. A mixture of lime 
and soot—thrown on the bushes in damp weather (so that it may 
adhere), in autumn—is found a good remedy. 
16. Neuroterus lentieularis. The Common Oak Spangle. Is 
noted as plentiful in South Devon; but round Islewortli it has been 
so enormously abundant on some trees as to weigh down the foliage 
and cause premature withering. In Essex it has been less abundant 
than usual, many Oak-stubs being without a spangled leaf this year, 
on which they had been plentiful in 1876. 
Amongst remedies for attacks of Injurious Insects beyond those 
mentioned in the list, Mr. W. D. Cansdale, of Witham, Essex, 
mentions an application which he has found successful this year in 
freeing his Asparagus from a bad attack of the Crioceris asparagi 
(Asparagus Beetle). The mixture consists of half a pound of soft-soap, 
quarter of a pound of flower of sulphur, and about the same quantity 
of soot, well mixed together in a pail of warm water. In this the 
infested shoots were dipped; and on inspection the next day it was 
found to have cleared the larvae. The plants were syringed afterwards 
with warm water (merely to clear off the dirt left by the dipping), and 
soon resumed a healthy appearance, and were thus saved from an 
unusually severe attack ; the Crioceris , when brought under treatment, 
being present on almost all the plants and stems, and noticeable by 
thousands in the larval stage, as well as in the egg. 
In my own garden, near Islewortli, I stopped what was becoming 
a destructive attack by syringing the plants with warm water, just 
bearable to the hand: this sent off the larvae, or loosened them so as 
to fall to a shake; and throwing soot liberally through the damp 
shoots to the ground destroyed the fallen grubs. This treatment 
repeated once or twice in the course of the season completely saved 
the plants, and the soot gave a luxuriant and healthy growth. 
Mr. Tait draws attention to unusual injury to the Cauliflower and 
Turnip crops, round Inverurie, from galls on the root, much of the 
Cauliflower crop and nearly all the Turnips in some fields being lost 
from this cause. 
Similar galls, produced by Ceutorhynchus sulcicollis , are excessively 
prevalent in the Cabbage-growing district round Islewortli, and 
information as to means of lessening the attack would be desirable. 
As the weevil grubs leave the galls, to undergo the pupal change in 
earth chambers little below the surface of the ground (and have 
