37 
cost would be trivial for the preservation of valuable fruit-trees, and 
would not prevent its application on the first indications of the 
ravages of the insect on lawns. 
Nitrate of soda has been applied as a top-dressing on grass-lands, 
at the rate of from 13 ewt. to 2 ewt. to the acre, but Ido not know 
with what results. 
The grub may be destroyed by mixing soot or sulphur with the 
soil, or by soaking it with soapsuds, or by pressure on the surface. 
Ploughing and harrowing are effectual on a large scale, as the grub is 
singularly impatient of any disturbance of the surface soil. 
Mr. R. C. Barstow, of Epsom, informs me that after feeding on 
the leaves of the castor-oil plant the beetles are seized with a peculiar 
stupor, and on hot days die in large numbers, but during cloudy 
weather they are, unfortunately, apt to recover. 
In many places the beetles may be collected by the bushel, on 
shaking the branches of a tree and laying a sheet underneath. 
THE RINGER. 
At Takapuna I found two olive-trees with the leaders and upper 
branches either dead or dying. On examining the stems I discovered 
that a ring of bark, a quarter of an inch in width, had been eaten 
away by an insect, at the height of about 5 feet from the ground, and 
several branches rather lower on the stem had been treated in the same 
way ; the process being practically identical with that which would be 
adopted by a-woodman who might wish to kill a tree without falling. 
The largest stem was 5 inches in diameter; the branches varied 
from three-quarters of an inch upwards; all the branches were desti- 
tute of leaves, and the bark was shrivelled and partly discoloured ; the 
upper portions of the leaders were in the same hopeless condition, but 
from their larger dimensions they were able to protract the period re- 
quired for their exhaustion, and still carried a few discoloured leaves 
on the twigs nearest the seat of injury. 
A perforation on the upper side of each ring marked the entrance 
to the gallery, which was found to be driven transversely until it 
reached the pith, when it descended for about an inch. No trace of 
an insect was found except in one burrow, where the shell of a grub 
was observed, apparently hardened by some secretion of the wood, 
which had rendered it so extremely brittle that it fell to pieces on 
being touched with a knife. 
T regret my inability to add to the unsatisfactory statement given 
above, as it is evident that the olive-grower will have to deal with a 
dangerous enemy should the unknown insect become widely diffused. 
It appears to have been recently introduced into the colony, as its opera- 
tions are so singular in their character, and at the same time so fatal in 
their results, thatit is scarcely possible for them to have escaped notice. 
Tn two instances the insect appears to have been unable to carry 
the furrow round the trunk on an even place, the termination being 
from three to six-eighths of an inch above the commencement, so that 
the groove assumed a spiral direction, 
