186 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Locust Extermination. — The following account of the successful 

 use of Locust Disease Fungus is published in ' The Agricultural 

 Journal ' (xiv. p. 460), which is issued by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, Cape of Good Hope. Writing from Trapper Valley on 

 March 18th, 1899, Mr. J. H. Benn says :— 



" Since returning to this district I have infected nearly 250 separate 

 swarms of locusts. On most farms there are numbers of distinct 

 swarms, that is, batches which have sprung up from various egg- 

 centres, and until the flying stage is reached they do not seem to 

 amalgamate into very large swarms, nor do they travel very far, as there 

 is plenty of food for them in this stage. The locusts on which I am 

 working are about two to three months old, but in many places they 

 are still hatching, so that all ages are to be met with. Probably the 

 majority of locusts now in voetganger stage started hatching in 

 January, and will pass into the flying stage in about two months' 

 time. Unfortunately the weather has been so dry that on a number 

 of farms I have required to infest the locusts more than once, but 

 whenever there has been any moisture either in the evening or early 

 morning the results have been most satisfactory. The method that 

 I have adopted is to put the fungus, which has grown on the sugar and 

 water, into a shallow dish, place this in the middle of a swarm of 

 voetgangers, and with the aid of one or two boys drive the locusts in 

 the direction of the dish. Very soon hundreds have passed through 

 the infected material, and those that have been unable to get out 

 I carefully remove and place on some green stuff, mealie tops, etc., at 

 the same time sprinkling some of the solution over the green food. If 

 the weather is favourable, the locusts start dying on the fourth, fifth, 

 or sixth day, but the length of time that elapses before the fungus 

 begins to take effect depends entirely on the amount of moisture in the 

 atmosphere. In some swarms that I have been able to watch per- 

 sonally the fungus has not started to kill till the eighth day, and in one 

 remarkable case at Bathurst I put a boy on to watch where the locusts 

 went. They travelled about 300 yards from the place that I infected, 

 but did not start dying until the tenth day, and on the fourteenth day 

 the flowers of the mealies, amongst which the locusts were, became 

 simply black with the dead voetgangers. They always seem to make 

 for the highest point when they are dying ; in this case they were in 

 such numbers that many of the flower-stalks were broken by their 

 weight." 



We understand that supplies of the Locust Disease Fungus may be 

 obtained from the Director of the Bacteriological Institute, Graham's 

 Town, at a cost of sixpence per tube by all residents in the colony who 

 may require it. Outside the colony applicants will be required to pay 

 extra postage. 



Besting Position of Hesperia tages. — Sixteen years ago I figured 

 and described in the ' Entomologist ' the moth (Noctua)-like resemblance 

 assumed by this butterfly while at rest. A further note on the subject 

 may be worth recording as an example of the power of mimicry and 

 discrimination which this species undoubtedly possesses to a very acute 

 degree for the purpose of protective resemblance. On May 30th last, 

 between 5 - 45 and 6 p.m., my wife and I found fourteen specimens of 



