Wellington Philosophical Society. 609 



the really important part of the thing was not the caterpillar, but the 

 fungus which killed it, and he was sorry that, with our Agricultural 

 Department, and the Lincoln Agricultural College, and professors of biology 

 all over the country, nobody seemed inclined to take up this economic 

 side of the question. 



Mr. Tanner said it was a pity that the true species to which the vege- 

 table caterpillar belonged could not be discovered. He had lately taken a 

 great interest in these boring insects, as they had commenced to attack 

 hia trees. 



Mr. Hudson said that the real point to be determined in connection 

 with the subject of the vegetable caterpillar was the discovery of the true 

 species of Lcjndoptcra to which it belonged. He was perfectly certain 

 that it was not Hepialus virescens, whose larva was a tree-borer, but it 

 would probably prove to be one of the species of the genus Porina, the 

 larvse of which were subterranean. With regard to Mr. Maskell's regret 

 that so much attention had been given to this insect by the members of 

 the Society, to the exclusion of the economic study of the various fungi 

 which destroyed insect-pests, he thought the investigation of this cater- 

 pillar was a matter of great scientific interest, and was therefore a most 

 suitable subject for the Society — far more so, in fact, than mere questions 

 of economic entomology and fruit-culture. 



Mr. T. Kirk agreed with Mr. Maskell that the economic side of the 

 question did not receive sufficient attention. What was required really 

 was an expert vegetable pathologist, who could devote his whole time to 

 such work as this. Credit was due to those who had done so much 

 already in this branch of science, but they had no time to go specially 

 into the matter. He was sorry credit had not been given to Mr. Hamil- 

 ton, who had first discovered the little beetle Vedalia, which had been 

 of so much use in destroying the fluted scale. Was Mr. Hudson quite 

 sure that Hepialus virescens was the larva that bored ? There was a 

 great deal to be learnt regarding the life-history of these borers. The 

 green moth bored into the hardest timber — the puriri. 



Mr. Tregear said that Mr. Tanner was like a great many others in 

 this country — they only took an interest in such matters when it affected 

 them personally. It was a pity that farmers and those interested did 

 not come forward and assist those who were devoting their time to this 

 valuable work of investigation. 



Mr. Maskell, in answer to Mr. Kirk, said the appointment of a 

 vegetable pathologist was just the very thing he had been advocating, 

 and it was what other countries had done. As regarded the beetle 

 usually called Vedalia, and its destruction of what Mr. Kirk termed 

 the " fluted scale," he differed entirely from Mr. Kirk. Whether Mr. 

 Hamilton ever saw Vedalia or not, before Mr. Koebele came he cer- 

 tainly never said anything about it, and the credit was justly and rightly 

 given in every country in the world to Mr. Koebele, the man who, finding 

 Vedalia, first in Australia and secondly in New Zealand, knew how to 

 make practical use of the discovery, and went practically to work with 

 it. It was he, and he only, who cleared California and other coun- 

 tries from Icerya, and he, and he only, deserved the credit. 



Mr. Travers thought the moth that was converted into the vegetable 

 caterpillar took the fungi while feeding. There were several species 

 that were attacked by the fungi. He called attention to the splendid 

 collection of vegetable caterpillars on the table that had been secured 

 and presented to the Museum by Mr. Fitton. 



Mr. Hudson, in answer to a question by Mr. Kirk, said that the 

 larva of Hepialus virescens fed on many forest-trees. He had found 

 them in Ari&totelia racemosa, Leptospermum ericoides, and several other 

 trees the names of which he was unacquainted with. 



39 



