Departmental Activities. 403 



Woolly Bears. — From reports reaching the division there appears 

 to have been qnite an extensive recrudescence during- March of one of 

 the native woolly bears or hairy grubs. It has been abundant at 

 Beaufort West and Prieska, in the Cape, and also in the Free State, 

 being- especially destructive in the Bloemfontein District. These are 

 very hairy, quick-moving' caterpillars, readily recognized by thn 

 succession of rings con)})osed of distinct white si)ois around their black 

 bodies and the longish black and brown hairs with which Ihey ar<' 

 clothed. They are said to feed upon a variety of weeds. ]nany 

 vegetables, suuHowers, and carnations, and to have been noticeably 

 partial to potatoes and maize. The caterpillars do not appear to 

 attack grass very much. The parent moth has not been identified, 

 but there is no relationship between this insect and the mystery worm, 

 as has been suspected. Two years ago this woolly bear was reported 

 as abundant and injurious to maize in the Free State, but the cater- 

 pillars were then so greatly ])arasitized that not one could be reared 

 to the moth state. It may l)e added that during 1919 a different 

 woolly bear {Tcracotonin suhiiKiciildtd Wk.) Avas noticeably abundant 

 and mischievous in the gardens at Port Elizabeth. 



Tobacco SliKj Afjain. — This pest is now reported from Queens- 

 town, Salem, and Fairburn. Balfour, in the Cape Province. The 

 damage of the slug is said to have been observed at the lower end of 

 the Kat River Valley (Mancazana and Lower Blinkwater) early in 

 1920 and to have spread since then to every part of the Stockenstrom 

 district. Very few fields seem to have escaped severe attack during 

 the drought;' but, after the rains arrived, the insects, so we are 

 informed, turned their attentions to the stinkblaar. 



Bean-stem Gall Weevil. — In the Rhodesian A</i-iculfuraI Journal 

 for October, 1920, Mr. lUipert Jack describes, as a minor pesl. a 

 native weevil attacking the stems of beans. The adult weevil places 

 its eggs in the stems of the bean-plant near to the base, and an 

 elongated swelling or much callused gall forms within which the 

 grub feeds and undergoes its transformations, finally escaping as a 

 weevil. For a number of years past the attack of a weevil of the 

 same genus, a variety of Alcicles erytliroptervs Cheo., has been under 

 observation in Pretoria upon the stems of climbing beans. The attack 

 is of the same nature as that of the Rhodesian insect, the galls being 

 usually near to the base of the vine, although it is not uncommon 

 to find them as high as three feet from the ground. The attack has 

 been observed upon three varieties of beans, but has not in any one 

 case under notice been found to interfere with the vigour of the 

 plant. The same weevil also attacks climbing beans on the coast of 

 Natal. 



Bean-pod Butterfly. — During February and March complaints 

 were received of the presence of green and s])iny grubs in green 

 beans. These proved to be the larvae of one of those snuill butterflies 

 connnonly spoken of as " blues." The species Cupido {Li/caena) 

 haetica (L.) is distributed fairly well throughout the Union, and its 

 attack on green beans, whilst ordinarily of no great moment, may 

 at times become quite uiischievous. 



