170 



JOURXAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and died in millions. These beetles seem to travel from the west, 

 going' in an easterly direction." 



Dr. L. Peringney, Director of the S.A. Museum, identified the 

 species as Fsaitivwdes illotus, Py. The number of species of 

 Psammodes is very great, and many of the various species are so much 

 alike that it is difficult to separate them. As a class they are familiar 

 insects in the veld. ])eing' the large, heavy-bodied, brownish to black, 

 non-flying beetles that one so commonly sees lumbering along without 

 apparent pur])ose. Occasionally they pause and tap the bare ground 





T(iK-T()K.iE : At top, larva, about full grown : at left, puj^a 

 removed from cell ; at right, adult beetle. All enlarged 



one-half. 



smartly with the tip of the abdomen, thus producing the peculiar 

 knocking noise, a. sex call, that gives them their popular name. The 

 beetles appear to be practically harmless ; but the larvae of all kinds 

 are supposed to feed on the roots of plants, and so the railway must 

 be considered to b^e serving a useful purpose in trapping beetles to 

 their death. Occasionally larvae are found damaging the roots of 

 inaize and wheat, but they seem to be far more abundant at the roots 

 of veld grasses than in cultivated lands. 



Buttevfjes ill Sivarjiis. — Xorthern Natal and much of the 

 southern part of the Transvaal was treated during December to the 

 novelty of prodigious numbers of white Initterflies all flying in one 

 direction. Judging from the letters that reached the Division of 

 Entomology the movement was at its height between the 7th and 18th 

 of the month. Xot unnaturally many farmers thought that the 

 butterflies portended outbreaks of the mystery (armj^) worm or of some 



