COLEOPTERA 



295 



Smith states that the beetle is very destructive to the foliage of the 

 Virginian creeper (Ampelopsis virginica or Veitchii). The report of 

 the Agricultural Department for 1898 states that it often cuts the 

 stems of growing potatoes. Quite common in Wellington Province. 



Agriotes sp. 



The report of the Agricultural Department for 1906 states that 

 a species of Agriotes, probably A. lineatus, Linn., the striped click 

 beetle, or wire worm, was very common, and had done much damage, 

 especially in potato crops, at Mangaweka. Mr W. W. Smith says 

 (1919) that this species attacks the roots of gooseberry bushes, 

 frequently killing the plants. Mr A. H. Cockayne informs me that 

 it is very generally distributed. 



Family BuprestidjE 



Buprestis lauta, Leconte 



Common in Taranaki, especially in sunny weather (April, 1919). 

 It was recorded in the Index (1903). 



Stigmodera gulielmi. White 

 Recorded in the Index (1903). 



HETEROMERA 



Family Tenebrionid^ 



Tenebrio obscurans, Fabr. Meal Worm 



Sir Joseph Banks in his Journal says, when nearing New Zealand 

 (23rd September, 1769): 



Our bread is but indifferent, occasioned by the quantity of vermin that 

 are in it. I have often seen hundreds nay, thousands, shaken out of a single 

 biscuit. We in the cabin have, however, an easy remedy for this, by baking 

 it in an oven, not too hot, which makes them all walk off; but this cannot 

 be allowed to the ship's people, who must find the taste of these animals 

 very disagreeable, as they everyone taste as strong as mustard, or rather 

 spirits of hartshorn. They are of five kinds, three Tenebrio, one Ptinus, and 

 the Phalangium canchrddes; this last, however, is scarce in the common 

 bread, but vastly plentiful in white meal biscuits, as long as we had any left. 



Mr C. Bills informs me (191 8) that bird-dealers formerly im- 

 ported considerable numbers of meal worms into New Zealand for 

 feeding introduced birds, but that they had discontinued doing so 

 for some years. 



Mr W. W. Smith informs me that they are very common in 

 Taranaki. The probability is that they are widely spread. 



