— 216 — 



hmidrecls swimming about in tlie fat-barrels.-Some of the latter 

 had remained where they stood for years, and were fiUed witli 

 a tliick, black, strong-smelling liquid; tlie larvae however 

 appeared to thrive well in the atrocióus stuff. » "W. W. Smith, 

 Ashbiirton, New Zealand, Jan. 6, 1892. 



It is singular, and suggestive of reflection, that two conti- 

 nents, nearly antipodal, should have been invaded by E. tenax 

 almost simultaneously, that is, within an interval of less than 

 twenty years. This simultaneousness becomes stili more signi- 

 fìcant when we contemplate it in contrast with the totally 

 different circumstances under which the invasion took place on 

 either side. In North America, during four centuries of Con- 

 stant intercourse with Europe, not a single specimen of E. te- 

 nax seems to have been imported to the eastern coast of 

 the United States. The invasion came overland from the West, 

 a region from which it hardly could be expected. To New 

 Zealand, on the contrary, E. tenax has been imported after a 

 comparatively short i3eriod of colonization and, in ali proba- 

 bility, « direct by mail steamers which have plied monthly 

 between S. Francisco and Auckland for the last twenty years » 

 (see above p. 130). The distance from Liverpool to New York 

 is about 3200 miles; that from S. Francisco to Auckland must 

 be more than twice as long. (1) This great disparity of re- 

 sults, obtained under almost identica! circumstances, is as yet 

 an unsolved problem. 



About Australia, with regard to E. tenax^ I am sorry to 

 say, I have no information whatever. 



Except the silkworm and the honey-bee, I hardly know 

 of any insect that can show an historical record equal to that 

 of Eì'istalis tenax. The record begins in the dusk of prehistoric 

 times, and continues up to the present date. In its earliest 

 days E. tenax appears like a myth, a misunderstood and un- 



(1) I have no data at liand, but, judge by the lenght of an average passage of 

 steamers. 



