Departmental Activities. 113 



fortunately most of the farmers were very keen in operating, and the 

 few that treated the matter of destroying as of no great importance, 

 after having been warned and matters explained to them by myself, 

 got busy at once with good results. The position is very favourable. 

 and all swarms of hoppers have been destroyed. A small percentage 

 of stragglers got to the wing stage, these being chiefly on farms where 

 guinea fowls are scarce. Yet I have to report that there are quite a 

 lot of scattered fliers on most of the Graaff-lleinet farms, as well as 

 in the eastern Aberdeen and northern Jansenville. These must have 

 hatched from the light showers that fell on 6th October or before, 

 because they were seen as early as 1st December. They took on a 

 greyish colour and never gathered into swarms. On 10th December 

 it was reported to me that these odd fliers were mating, and on the 

 15th December I myself saw the same, so they must have hatched out 

 before the 25th October rains. They escaped notice by farmers on 

 account of their grey colour and their being widely spread in ones, 

 twos, and threes. It was impossible to operate on them. During 

 my visits I also noticed scattered hoppers of grey and green colour 

 in all stages of life, from very small to almost wing stage, and often 

 I found these off-coloured forms mixed up and trekking with a swarm 

 of voetgangers 



" There is an increase of pauws in this district. I also notice a 

 lot of hav.^ks of a dark grey colour, about the size of a well-grown 

 homing pigeon. They are seen mostly amongst the odd fliers. There 

 are also large locust birds (European stork), but not very many. I 

 saw a few days ago about 25 together along the river. Mr. Walter 

 Rubidge, of Dalham, reported having a few thousand small locust 

 birds (starling) on his farm. Guinea-fowl also seem to leave their 

 usual bush-veld and take to the open flat country during the day to 

 get amongst these fliers. The scattered fliers in this district, if they 

 could gather together, are enough to form a very big swarm. In 

 some places you find them in greater numbers than in others, but 

 they seem to be content to stay where they are, and will only fly up 

 when approached, and will soon sit down again. The supplies on 

 hand are enough in case another outbreak occurs." 



Tobacco Slug in Bathurst. — The tobacco slug (Lema hilineata), 

 the small yellow and black striped South American beetle, that with 

 its slug-like larva has caused extensive damage to growing tobacco 

 in the Piet Retief District, Transvaal Province, is now causing 

 uneasiness amongst growers of Cape gooseberries in the Bathurst 

 district. Cape Province. Entomologist David Gunn, who has his 

 headquarters at Port Elizabeth, recently addressed a meeting of the 

 growers at Scottsbottom on the subject of the insect and its control. 

 The insect feeds on Cape gooseberry in common with tobacco and 

 also a number of weeds of the same family as these plants. Entomo- 

 logist Van der Merwe, working from Durban, is conducting demon- 

 strations in various parts of the Piet Retief District to show that 

 spraying with arsenate of lead is an efficient means for controlling 

 the insect in tobacco lands. 



