Mylabris Beetles. 747 



scattered over an acre of plants they appear to be fairly numerous. 

 Small gardens, where the writer failed to find one hundred beetles, were 

 described by the owners as "simply alive with them." When it is 

 considered that it requires about one thousand dried beetles to weigh 

 a pound it can be seen that unless the price is very high, collecting 

 merely for the sake of the sale price of the beetles would not be a 

 very remunerative business, with the exception, possibly, of a few 

 localities where the beetles are exceptionally abundant, and that as a 

 rule it is only when it is necessary to reduce damage that collecting 

 ciin be profitable. 



The Control of Mylabris Beetles. 



When control measures become necessary, spraying suggests 

 itself, but it is not a satisfactory remedy. In the first place, the 

 beetles are often rather scattered, making it necessary to spray quite 

 a large number of plants in order to kill a few beetles. Secondly, the 

 spraying is not effective enough to be worth while. It might possibly 

 be eltective when the beetles attack foliage, but they generally eat 

 flowers. The blossoms of plants are waxy, only a small amount of 

 spray adheres to them, and it requies a comparatively large dose of 

 poisoa to kill a large beetle. Collecting is cheaper and much more 

 effective than spraying. 



Collecting. 



Method. — The writer found collecting with the hands to be more 

 satisfactory than the use of a net, although the beetles have a 

 disagieeable habit of expelling the excreta when handled, and also 

 giving off large drops of a blistering fluid, especially from the femur- 

 tibia joints. Some people find that this fluid blisters their hands, but 

 it did not injure the hands of the writer nor those of three students 

 who assisted for a few days in collecting. If necessary gloves could 

 be worn. 



The collector must work quietly, otherwise the beetles will fly 

 away. When the beetles are on trees, it is necessary to knock them off 

 with a sharp blow from a lath or stick. 



Time:. — The writer did most of the collecting in the afternoon, 

 but when taking the beetles from fruit trees it became necessary to do 

 the work in the morning, as the insects were less active then than 

 later in the day. Collecting from trees was difl&cult even in the 

 mornings. 



Killing. — If the beetles are not intended for use the most con- 

 venient method of dealing with them is to drop them into water on 

 wliich a little paraffin oil is floating. After passing* through the film 

 of oil they die within a couple of minutes, often in a few seconds. 

 Boiling water or carbon bisulphide could be used if desired. 



Effectiveness of Collecting. 



When one advises hand collecting as a control measure, one is 

 generally met with the statement: "The beetles fly into the garden 

 as fast as they can be collected." In order to determine just how 

 effective collecting really is the writer counted the number of beetles 

 taken each day in different gardens and kept records. To make the 



