1890.] 17 



paths. P. Erilhonius— one of the commonest Mooltan butterflies, more especially 

 after rain in July and August ; all my specimens are rather larger than those taken 

 in Upper Burmah at an elevation of 3000 — 4000 feet. 



Chapra Mathias (Moore) — a common species almost throughout the year. 



Pamphila Karsana (Moore) — this is also a common species. 



Norwood House, Weston-super-Mare : 

 October 20th, 1889. 



ICERYA PURCRASI, AND ITS INSECT-ENEMIES IN NEW 

 ZEALAND. 



BY W. M. MASKELL, F.E.M.S. 



At Vol. XXV, p. 2B2, Mr. Douglas has a note on leery a Purchasi 

 and Ortonia natalensis, in -uhich, after remarking on the difference 

 between the larvae of the two species, he has some observations on the 

 predaceous enemies of Icerya. This matter is one more interesting 

 to us in the South Seas, to fruit-growers in California, or at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, than it is to English horticulturists, who will not ever 

 have an opportunity, I hope, of knowing practically what Icerya is 

 capable of in the way of destruction. It might be a new experience 

 to some of them to see, as I did a couple of months ago, a grove of 

 wattle trees {Acacia sp.), none of which was under thirty feet high, 

 and many of them fifty, standing up, nothing but bare trunks and 

 branches, killed stone-dead by Iceryce, not one of which had been 

 known in the locality eight years ago. And yet (and this is the object 

 of my penning this note) at the time of my visit only a few Iceryce 

 were to be found in the neighbourhood ; one had to look about and 

 hunt for specimens where, say in 1886 or 1887, there were millions. 

 The meaning of this statement is simply this, that Icerya Purchasi, 

 which first appeared in New Zealand about 1877, and which had not 

 reached the locality of which I speak until about 1881, had increased 

 in five years so much as to cover profusely the vegetation, had killed, 

 amongst others, this grove of wattles, and had then, in two or three 

 years more, suddenly decreased in numbers until it is now no longer 

 plentiful. The reason of this decrease is certainly not want of food, 

 for the pest is practically omnivorous, and there is any quantity of 

 vegetable nutriment available for it ; what has brought about the im- 

 provement (only too late to save my friend's trees) has been the 

 native enemy, a species of Coccinella. 



Mr. Douglas, in referring to a correspondence between Miss 

 Ormerod and Mr. F. S. Crawford, of Adelaide, observes that of the 



B 



