461 



January, February, IMarch and April, and they will feed on the leaves 

 of maize and some other grasses, though these may not be the favourite 

 food-plants. The larvae are injurious in December and January, 

 when the maize plants are young enough to suffer from their attack. 

 The eggs are not necessarily laid on the crop itself. The larvae will 

 feed on the underground stems of Eleusine indica and probably other 

 grasses ; they have also been reported as attacking the pods of ground- 

 nuts and the'underground stems of tobacco. In many cases infestation 

 can be traced to land covered with E. indica the previous season. All 

 attacks noticed by the author occurred on red or yellow soils, but this 

 beetle may prove a pest of heavier lands also. 



A pink grub is recorded as feeding on the imderground stems of 

 kafifir corn, destroying the heart, so that the entire plant withers. 

 According to Dr. Peringuey, it is probably a Melyrid and belongs to 

 a new genus. The beetles are found in abundance on Natal red-topped 

 grass [Tricholacna rosea) and teff grass in April and May, and have also 

 been reported from peas, beans, cowpeas, etc. It is not known wliether 

 these plants are normally injured, but in one instance a grub was found 

 entirely buried in the stem of an unhealthy cowpea plant, which was 

 also infested with Agromyza sp. (bean stem maggot). In captivity 

 the eggs are laid loosely in the soil, in which also the larva constructs 

 a chamber for pupation. Eggs are laid freely in April and May and 

 hatch in May and June, from which fact it is supposed that the winter 

 is passed in the larval stage in the soil. There is a possibility that the 

 grubs are partly predacious. There is probably only one brood during 

 the year. 



Departmental Activities : Entomology.—//. Dept. Agric, Union S. 

 Africa, Pretoria, iv, no. 6, June 1922, pp. 495-500. 



A small flea-beetle, resembling in general appearance the American 

 species, PhvUotreta vittata, has recently been very destructive to 

 cabbages, gnawing into the stems and completely defoliating some 

 plants. Radish, turnip, rape, and other crucifers are also severely 

 damaged. Within the last few months, the presence of a highly 

 destructive sweet potato weevil, a species of Cylas. has been discovered 

 in Nyasaland, and is already recorded from Uganda and Zanzibar. 

 The difficulty of guarding against this pest in consignments of sweet 

 potatoes from other countries is pointed out, for one tuber has been 

 found to contain as many as 109 adult weevils, 34 pupae and 5 larvae. 



A warning is given to"^ prospective purchasers of apple trees, that if 

 they wish to buy trees of varieties susceptible to woolly Aphis [Eriosoma 

 lanigenim, Hausm.] on roots that are certain to remain immune from 

 attacks of that pest, they should demand trees on blight-proof stocks, 

 and not simplv trees on blight-proof roots. 



Epimadiza nigra, Lamb (gladiolus fly) is very troublesome ui 

 Durban, all stages of the plant being attacked ; in early attacks no 

 flower-stalk is produced ; in late infestations the flower-buds fail to 

 open, and the maggots apparently migrate to the main stalk, which 

 ultimately breaks down. Several reports of damage to garden plants 

 by the ant, Dorylus helvolns, L., are recorded. The cabbage Aphis 

 [Brevicorvne hrassicae, L.] causes much unnecessary damage each year. 

 After the crop is harvested every cabbage stump or useless plant should 

 be collected and destroyed, as well as any cruciferous or other weed 

 likely to harbour the pest. When fields are infested the plants attacked 

 should be pulled up and the remainder sprayed with tobacco extract 



