REPORT 



ON THE 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND OTHER ANIMALS 



OBSERVED IN THE MIDLAND COUNTIES 

 DURING 1906. 



" Knowledge alone is not the destiny of man u-pon the earth, know- 

 ledge must play its part in /*/." HELM HOLTZ. 



" Economic Entomology r , or a knowledge of those insects which 

 injure cultivated crops, is so vast a field of discovery, tha\t every season 

 brings forth fresh subjects for investigation ; and although this arises 

 in a great measure from the neglect which has attended this important 

 department . . . it seems as if a cycle were revolving, which exhibits 

 species previously unobserved, at intervals of greater or less extent, 

 . . . so that enemies to the cultivator may suddenly become great 

 annoyances in latitudes where they had been previously unknown" 



JOHN CURTIS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



DURING the year January 3ist, 1906, to January 3ist, 1907, eleven 

 hundred and seventy-one inquiries have been dealt with. Of these, 

 eight hundred and forty were connected with agricultural and garden 

 pests, nineteen referred to household or commercial pests, and three 

 hundred and twelve specimens were sent in for identification. 



Applications for information were dealt with from the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture for the Fiji Islands ; the Liverpool School 

 of Tropical Medicine ; the Land Agents' Society ; the Midland 

 Reafforesting Association ; and the Agricultural Committees of various 

 County Councils. 



In all, one thousand and twenty-three written replies have been 

 sent out, 



