148 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



we may reasonably infer that the moth is supposed to 

 deposit her eggs also on the potato after being dug. 

 This may or may not be the case, but it is not at all 

 improbable that while in the pit, if exposed, the moths 

 may deposit eggs in the eyes of the tubers, and the 

 young grubs, when hatched, would at once be able to eat 

 their way into the potato. One thing seems perfectly 

 clear, viz., that it is an almost impossible task for such a 

 minute and fragile moth to descend into the earth, more 

 especially when we find that the harder the soil, no 

 matter how rich, the damage done is often greater than 

 when the crop is grown on poorer and more sandy soil. 

 Of course, where fissures occur in the soil, the moth 

 might easily descend below ground. Again, I have 

 received the haulms or stalks of the potato which have 

 been tunnelled by some caterpillar from a foot above 

 ground right down into the tuber. 



About two years since several settlers in the rich 

 Brandy Creek district of South Gippsland sent me 

 samples of potatoes that had been attacked by the cater- 

 pillar of this moth, and from which our Fig. 4 has been 

 taken. This tuber had been cut through in about equal 

 parts, each part containing no less than sixteen and 

 thirteen larvae respectively. These people complained 

 more of the potatoes having been destroyed while in the 

 pit or raised mound a fact that could be easily accounted 

 for by finding many of the tubers to be swarming with 

 grubs, and from which in due time the little moths would 

 appear. 



Mr. K. Lucas, of Ensay, Victoria, an old farmer and a 

 very keen observer, is quite positive about the eggs 

 being deposited on the stalk of the potato ; in fact, he 

 goes so far as to declare that he has seen the moth 

 thus depositing her eggs. I have not been so fortunate 

 as this, but I have found the grub in the stalk, and as 

 it was working downwards only, it must necessarily 

 have come from above ; at least such are the conclusions 

 at which I have arrived after a careful consideration of 

 the facts. 



