1916] Entomology in the British Empire 9 



locust Pachytilus sulcicollis is more serious than Schistocerca 

 peregrina. From the Kalahari Desert, in what has hitherto 

 been called German South West Africa, which is the permanent 

 habitat of the species, vast swarms migrate to Central and 

 Eastern Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange River Colony and 

 Rhodesia and breed there. These swarms sometimes have a 

 frontage of fifteen to twenty miles and a length of sixty to 

 seventy miles and take several days to pass a given point. 

 They devastate the veldt of all green food with serious results; 

 in 1906 it was estimated that the locust damage in South Africa 

 amounted to five million dollars. The control of these locusts 

 is regulated by law. Farmers are required to report the laying 

 of the eggs and the appearance of the young hoppers. They 

 are also required to destroy the young hoppers and the govern- 

 ment furnishes the poison. Arsenite of soda mixed with water 

 and molasses or sugar is universally used and with success 

 over large areas, the poison being usually applied by means 

 of bucket pumps which are loaned to the farmers. This cam- 

 paign necessitates the keeping in stock of a large store of 

 prepared poison and a supply of pumps for any emergency. 



Notwithstanding the large amount of administrative work, 

 the entomologists in South Africa have undertaken important 

 lines of investigation. Mr. Lounsbury's work on ticks is well 

 known and Mr. C. W. Mally's name will always be remembered 

 where poisoned baits for fruit-flies are used. Mr. Fuller has 

 also contributed to our knowledge of the termites and Mr. 

 Hardenberg has made extensive studies of the insects affecting 

 the wattle. 



The tick problem is a very serious one in South Africa, 

 several most important diseases of live stock being transmitted 

 by these agents. Of these diseases East Coast Fever, due to 

 the protozoan parasite Theileria parva, which is carried by 

 several species of ticks of the genus Rhipicephalus, is the most 

 serious and has played great havoc. In addition the disease 

 included under the general term Piroplasmosis namely, bilary 

 fever in horses and redwater in cattle, are serious adverse 

 factors in the main type of agriculture followed in South 

 Africa. Fortunately the Veterinary Branch of the Department 

 of Agriculture has attacked the tick problem in a vigorous 

 manner along well known lines, no little credit being due to the 

 work of Dr. Arnold Theiler. 



