2S Journal op the Department of Agriculture. 



THE TOBACCO SLUG (LEMA BILINEATA GERMAR). 



By C. P. VAK DER Merave, Division of Entomology, Durban. 



Tobacco, an introduced plant, has i-intil recently been considered 

 free from particularly serious pests in the field. Our native insects 

 have not been found to give much attention to it, probably because 

 no plants of the genus to which tobacco belongs are indigenous to 

 South Africa ; but now a beetle has come to the front which may 

 have to be taken very seriously into account. It is given the popular 

 name of Tobacco Leaf Slug, from the appearance of the larvae. It 

 appears to have its native home in South America, and the 

 probabilities are that it was introduced into South Africa during 

 the Boer war, when large quantities of forage and other such military 

 supplies were shipped from the Argentine. Tbe adults of the tobacco 

 slug rest during the winter for several months, and bales of produce 

 or other articles from infested countries might transport beetles which 

 had gone into them to hibernate. 



The insect was first observed bj^ the writer in Durban in 1916 

 feeding on Physalis lobata, an introduced plant and a common 

 weed. When it was recognized as a potentially dangerous pest, he 

 undertook to make it a subject of special study, and is still engaged 

 upon the question of control. 



The determination of the species as Lev^a hilineata was made by 

 the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, London. 



Occurrence in Sol'th Africa. 



As far as is known, the insect v/as first observed during 1911 at 

 the Cedara Agricultural School, Natal, and was brought to the notice 

 of the Natal Entomologist of the time, Mr. Claude Fuller, to wdiom 

 it did not then appear more than a potential pest of tobacco. In 

 January, 1913, it was again reported from Cedara, and the following 

 year brought to the notice of Mr. W. B. Wilson, Tobacco and Cotton 

 Expert, from Richmond, ISTatal. In the beginning of 1915 it was 

 reported to the editor of " Izindabu Zabantu " by a native correspon- 

 dent from the Ixopo Division, Natal, who stated it to be new to the 

 natives of the district. The pest was also reported from Swinburne, 

 Orange Free Slate, in Febiuary, 1915, and in Ajtril a report re{,'eived 

 showed that it had been injurious to tobacco at Tarkastad, Cape Pro- 

 vince. About the same time the beetle was collected by Mr. C. 

 Barker, of the Durban Museum, at Malvern, near Durban; and it is 

 likely that it has been there for a much longer period. During 

 1917 the insect was reported from Pietvlei, !Mooi River District, 

 Natal, where, it was said, it bad been injurious five years previously. 

 Towards the beginning of 1919 the manager of the .Piet Relief 

 Government Tobacco Station reported the pest; but from inquiries 

 aftei wards made it appeared that it had been known in the 

 district two or three years before. It was first noticed, as far as could 

 be determined, on two farms about 21 miles apart, which indicates 

 that it was then widely distributed in the district but not present in 



