NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 11 



struck me as being a somewhat erratic species, and one which the col- 

 lector may reasonably hope to come across at almost any time during 

 the summer mouths. I can add some later dates than Mr. Carr's for 

 specimens taken at large, namely, Aug. 24th and Sept. 10th, 1891 (in 

 the Isle of Wight), and 1 believe some others quite at the end of 

 August a year or two previous. On the other hand, I have no earlier 

 date than April 25th, and that was in 1893; but, as I do very little 

 field-work in April, this is not altogether surprising. I have bred the 

 species (without forcing) from March 25th onwards, but certainly had 

 no late autumn emergences. — Louis B. Prout ; 246, Richmond Road, 

 N.E., Dec. 7th, 1899. 



Great Destruction of Injurious Beetles. — While recently on a 

 visit to Alford House, near Springburn Bush, twenty-five miles from 

 Ashburton, I was informed by Mr. Herring of the prodigious destruction 

 of two indigenous species of Odontria {zealandica and striatum), both of 

 which are very injurious to vegetation, especially grasses. Tlie larvae 

 are both root-feeders, and commit serious havoc in paddocks sown down 

 in English grasses. The perfect beetles appear in the months of November 

 and December, and swarm in myriads on calm sultry evenings ; they 

 settle in the grass to deposit their eggs, which hatch in a fortnight, 

 and the larvae burrow into the ground to commence their depredations. 

 On Dec. 16th, 1897, a north-west gale of wind of exceptional severity 

 blew on the upper parts of the Canterbury Plains near the ranges. 

 Although it was felt at Ashburton, no damage was done to property 

 excepting to cover everything in the houses with very fine dust. 

 Through the day the sun was obscured lower down the Plains by the 

 dense clouds of dust which the strong wind had scoured o£f the newly- 

 sown paddocks near the ranges. Close to the latter are considerable 

 areas of tussock-grass [Poa australis), in which the Odontria or cock- 

 chafer beetles shelter during the day. On part of Mr. Herring's pro- 

 perty, two and a half miles from the base of the ranges, a gorse fence 

 grew at a right angle with the wind. At one end of the fence, where 

 a five-foot gate is placed, the wind during the gale had produced an 

 eddy. Here the soil and the myriads of dead bodies of the brown 

 beetles were deposited in a drift to the depth of two and a half feet. 

 The soil-drift to the same depth was deposited the whole length of the 

 gorse fence, extending about a mile. The tierce low-blowing wind 

 leeching through the tussocks had blown the beetles out, and, carrying 

 their shattered bodies along with the soil scoured off the freshly-sown 

 fields, deposited both together on the low side of the fence. Parallel 

 with the gorse fence, but a chain from it, there is a belt of mixed pines, 

 which also, at the present time, show the effects of the wind-driven 

 soil beating against them two years ago. — W. W. Smith ; Ashburton 

 N.Z., Sept. 25th, 1899. 



Orthoptera Localities. — Mr. C. W. Dale, in reference to note 

 in 'Entomologist' (vol. xxxii. 289), tells me that Ectobia panzeri 

 occurs on the Chesil Beach, and at Glanvilles Wootton, in Dorset, as 

 well as at Studland. He has also found Xiphidium dorsale commonly 

 near Studland, and in the marshes between Freshwater and Yarmouth, 

 in the Isle of Wight ; and Platydeis brachyptera common at Bourne- 

 mouth, and on the Purbeck heaths. He further states that Leptophyes 



