164 



forty years ago that the T\Titer's attention was requested to these 

 maggots, and they proved to be the larvae of the small Tineid moth, 

 Lita solanella. The natives have a knowledge of these larvae being 

 in the Eaufo ever since they remember. It was not until about 1862 

 that these moths were heard of attacking the potato. About that 

 time their ravages became so serious as very materially to affect the 

 value of the crop and cause great loss to the farmers, and also to the 

 natives. The general impression has always been that the abnormal 

 habit was taught by the Europeans using the angustifolia as thatch 

 for their potato houses. There is another and equally x)robable cause, 

 that in older times the natives lived more on dry ground, on hills, 

 and scoria land, and grew their crops there, bat of later years both 

 natives and Europeans have grown potatoes on land intersected by wet 

 gullies, where the plant abounds. Be this as it may, there seems but 

 little doubt that the insect is a native of New Zealand. The moth attacks 

 the potato by laying its eggs on the stem, near the bottom. This is done 

 just as they have died down and are ripe enough to harvest. The larvae 

 on being hatched enter the ground and attack the tubers, the outer 

 portions of which they run burrows in, so that they become unfit for 

 any purpose. Any potatoes left exposed In the field are attacked, and 

 the attack goes on during the harvest and after the potatoes are housed. 

 The native cure is to place live shellfish on the top of their potatoes 

 in the houses, and they say that the unpleasant odor drives away the 

 moth, but the truth is more likely that it hides the true nature of the 

 contents of the house from the insect. The cure which the writer has 

 advised, and which has always been attended with a good deal of suc- 

 cess, is to harrow the potato stalks up in heaps and burn them before 

 digging the roots, having previously planted full depth and molded 

 very well up. This does not bring the tubers to the surface, and it facili- 

 tates the harvest, but care should be taken to keep the harrows just 

 clear of the digging, and to keep the potatoes well and constantly cov- 

 ered during the harvest, and when they are carted to remove them to 

 a place distant from the field, and also from the Angustifolia. As soon 

 as the stalks die down the crop should be well rolled. Probably the 

 use of Paris green might be attended with benefit, as the larvae are in 

 no hurry to reach the tubers. This is the only case in which the spar- 

 row is of real benefit. It catches so many of these moths as to make a 

 most material difference in their numbers, and in some instances the 

 pest has been cleared,, seemingly, altogether. The sparrow, however^ 

 gets more credit than he deserves. The great reduction — in fact, in some 

 districts the disappearance — of the Army Caterpillars that used to de- 

 stroy grain crops is owing to a wonderful increase of two species of 

 well-known Ichneiimonid flies that prey upon the larvae of Noctuid 

 moths, and not to the exertions of the sparrow. 



