57 



feediug and harboriug an unusual number of Noctuid larva?, and when 

 Ijlowiug- became practicable the worms were already of large size; the 

 plowing destroyed their food "plants so that the larvte had no choice but 

 to fall upon the grape-vines or perish, but they proved themselves equal 

 to the change of pabulum. 



The remedy under like conditions should be earlier plowing, but if 

 cultivation is retarded by late rains then plowing should be deferred 

 still later to allow the broods of caterpillars to pupate.— J. J. Elvers. 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ICEEYA IN NEW ZEALAND. 



Mr. R. Allan Wight, who seems to have kept track of the Icerya in 

 New Zealand better than any one else, in a recent letter gives the fol- 

 lowing interesting facts concerning the disappearance of this pest, 

 apropos to a recently published statement of Mr. Maskell's to the effect 

 that Icerya was present in Grafton Road Valley six years ago : 



The Iceryte, were not ouly in miliious in Grafton Road Valley, as he describes six 

 years ago, but such was the case fourteen months ago. Yes, and also at Takapuna, 

 Pousouby, New Market, Waikomiti, Wairoa South, and several other places, where Mr. 

 Maskell never saw them at all. These beetles have sprung up suddenly, and the work 

 they have done is positively incredible. In March, 1868, I jiassed through Auckland 

 to go to Whangarei, in the north, to advise people on the Icerya question (it had 

 broken out there), and I found the pest white on everything in and around the city 

 and for 20 miles in several districts. In February, 1889, 1 was again in Auckland and 

 lo, it was gone! I found some, of course, but only "here and there a one." Did I 

 not do well, then, to advise Mr. Koebele to go to Napier, where there was still a re- 

 treating host of the enemy ? Yes ; and, believe me, if you can only succeed in keeping 

 these beetles from your birds they will clear the Icerya as the sun melts the snow 

 from the mountain. Last March I visited the Wairoa South, where I saw the last of 

 Icerya hanging to the Acacia uiidulata twigs, with ova sacs torn and empty, and I 

 saw thousands upon thousands of the little C. Nova Zealandia in imago pupa and 

 larva form, but mostly in the two first stages. My daughter, who lives there aud 

 who inherits her father's love of nature, undertook to watch thorn for me, aud she 

 now reiiorts that the Coleoptera are all gone out of sight, and no more Iceryse are 

 as yet to be seen. 



A PECULIARITY OF CERTAIN CADDIS-FLIES. 



Mr. K. Flach, in the Wiener Entomologische Zeitung for June 25, men- 

 tions the fact that among the species of the genera AderceSj Asta- 

 topteryx and especially Nenglenes, specimens occur provided with wings 

 and large black eyes, while others are found in which these organs are 

 rudimentary or entirely wanting. Several explanations of this peculiar- 

 ity have been advanced. Gillmeister and Erichson considered the forms 

 as distinct species. Matthews considered those provided with eyes as 

 females and the blind ones as males. Reitter insisted that, in conform- 

 ity with all known analogous cases, the blind ones are the females and 

 those with eyes the males. Flach's investigations have, however, 

 proven without a doubt the rather surprising fact that sexes occur in 

 both forms indicating the existence of alternating generations, the blind 

 form being stationary while those provided with eyes and wings are 



