44 
NOTES OF OBSERVATIONS 
parts of the field were dressed with guano, soot, and mineral super¬ 
phosphate ; all had a good effect, but the superphosphate the best. 
Mr. Harley Kough, of Church Stretton, supplied me with specimens 
reared from larvae taken in the Mangold leaves, and forwarded still 
secured in the bottle in which they had undergone their transfor¬ 
mations, from one of which the accompanying figure is sketched. 
The Mangold leaves showed some amount of attack in a large field 
near Islewortli, hut were not much harmed, and in a large number of 
leaves which I examined I did not find a single larva had turned to 
pupa in the leaf. 
Dr. R. J. Mahoney, of Dromore Castle, Kenmare, Kerry, notes the 
attack of a larva of a species he had not noticed in previous seasons 
on the leaves of the Mangolds, The leaves withered off here and there, 
hut the roots did not suffer. 
At Ballinacourte, Tipperary, Mr. Sym Scott notes, on the 25th of 
August, that the Mangolds were sadly destroyed by Anthomyia beta, 
which he had never before seen. It appeared about the beginning of 
August, and the injury was at first taken for the effects of frost; the 
crop suffered much damage. 
Phsedon (Gastrophysa) polygoni. Mr. Harley Kough, on the 
22nd of June, mentioned that the Mangold crops were severely injured 
in the neighbourhood of Church Stretton and many parts of Shrop¬ 
shire by a Beetle, which lays myriads of white, long eggs on the under 
side of the leaves, from which the larvae soon hatch and feed on 
the leaves where the eggs have been deposited. The specimens 
forwarded proved to be Phaclon ( Gastrophysa ) polygoni, a small oval 
Beetle less than a quarter of an inch long, of a blue or greenish 
colour, with thorax bright shining red, the tip of abdomen and legs 
also red, the horns black and red at the base. This Beetle is to 
be found on the common Wild Knot grass, Polygonum aviculare (from 
whence it takes its specific name), also on Dock and Sorrel. It is 
mentioned by Mr. Kough as not having been previously observed on 
the crops in the neighbourhood, and the Beetle is noticed as difficult 
* 
to capture on account of its habit of dropping from the leaves on any 
disturbance, and burrowing into the ground. The heavy rain did 
much in clearing the Beetles and larvae, but the eggs, being on the 
under side of the leaves, remained still attached. 
Ceutorhynchus sulcicollis. The Cabbage and Turnip Gall 
Weevil is noticed by Mr. Sutherland as very prevalent this season near 
Berridale, Caithness, and he mentions gas-lime and soot, also seaweed 
and salt, as good applications to prevent attack, 
