Zoology.-] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Insects. 



with by any other means but hand-picking, and there are not 

 hands enough in the country yet for that, as the children by law 

 must attend school. The Acclimatisation Society acclimatised the 

 Indian Minah in the hope that, besides destroying the Grasshoppers 

 and Locusts (which they do admirably), they might diminish this 

 pest also ; but they have unfortunately developed a taste for 

 eating the grapes, and do not seem to like the larvae of the 

 Agarista. Before the new school law, children used to be employed 

 thinning the numbers of the larvae in an unpleasant but effective 

 manner, by cutting each one across with a pair of scissors as they 

 walked along the rows of plants, instead of delaying to pick them 

 off. Even this sharp and decisive proceeding is too tedious to keep 

 down their numbers, and, to add to the difficulty, the fowls even 

 will not eat them, nor any other creature as far as I know. The 

 only suggestion I can make is to employ hand-pickers at the time 

 of the approach of the first brood of caterpillars, when the vines 

 come first into leaf. Each one killed then prevents the formation 

 of multitudes, as well as gives strength to the plant by their 

 present removal. The next object of attention should be to kill 

 all the moths of the first brood found on the wing, the figure here 

 given rendering the right one easy of recognition, and this for each 

 one killed will destroy myriads of eggs which would form the 

 second brood. 



Explanation of Figures. 



Plate 8. — Fig. 9, male, natural size ; the right pair of wings attached to the body represent 

 the upper surface, the left-hand pair (separated from the thorax) represent the markings of the 

 under surface. Fig. 10, female, natural size, the right-hand attached pair of wings showing the 

 upper side, the left-hand detached ones showing the under side. Fig. 11, larvae, natural size, on 

 their newly adopted food, the vine-leaf. Fig. 11a, head and anterior segments, magnified. 

 Fig. 116, posterior end, magnified. Fig. 12, the pupa, natural size. Fig. 13, the earthy cocoon. 



N.B. — In some impressions of this plate the black is too pale. 



Frederick McCoy. 



[32] 



