MEETINGS OF .SOCIETIES. 4 1 



state. Turning to the coleoptera or beetles, equal variety in habits 

 was found to exist. Many species burr awed through trees in the larva 

 state, others were carnivorous, forming pitfalls in the earth to capture 

 their prey. As a striking instance of diversity of habit the genus 

 Sitaris was mentioned. This beetle laid an enormous number of eggs 

 near the entrance to the nests of various species of solitary bees. 

 These eggs hatched out as minute active insects with six legs. Numbers 

 of them perished, but a few managed to jump on to the bees as they 

 visited their nests. Here the larva remained until the bee was in her 

 own cell, where she deposited an egg which floated on the top of the 

 honey that the bee had industriously stored up for her offspring. As 

 soon as the Sitaris larva got a chance it left the bee and jumped on to 

 the egg, which it then devoured. Casting its skin it now appeared as 

 an ordinary beetle-grub, feeding on the honey until it was all consumed, 

 when it was transformed into a pupa, from which the beetle finally 

 issued. The remarkable habits of social insects were also alluded to, 

 and the number of the other orders of insects compared with the 

 hemiptera, of which the coccidse were but a small family. He did not 

 wish to detain the Society further, but hoped that he had said enough 

 to show that the whole insect world was teeming with interest and 

 variety. 



Mr. Travers : The great value of Mr. Maskell's work has been the 

 determining of insects that have been so injurious to our fruit and 

 other trees, and the pointing out of remedies to be applied to prevent 

 damage. The fruit-growers of New Zealand are under great obligations 

 to Mr. Maskell ; so that although Mr. Maskell's labours are principally 

 of value from a scientific point of view, yet for economic purposes they 

 have been of the greatest benefit. Had it not been for his great 

 labours many of these pests would have escaped observation and have 

 gone on doing the greatest mischief. Beetles and other insects are also 

 very injurious to trees, and are easily introduced from other countries, 

 so that anyone who devotes- his attention to the observation of the 

 life-history of such objects is deserving of credit. 



Mr. Maskell, in reply, said ha did not wisli it to be understood 

 that he thought the study of other forms of insect life had no interest. 

 He considered, however, that there was very little new to be gathered 

 in other branches of entomology — the subject of butterflies and beetles 

 had been pretty well worked out, while there was still so much to learn 

 from the study of the coccida?. What he was doing now was purely for 

 science — he was rather sick of the economic side of the question. His 

 reasons were partly personal, no doubt, as he found great numbers of 

 persons ready to ask advice as to the means of treating their trees and 

 improving their property, but nobody seemed to recollect that their 

 adviser might have economic necessities of his own, or to think' it 

 necessary to offer the least remuneration for the advice. But, 

 principally, he found that whatever counsels might be given, the chief 

 object of many persons seemed to be to introduce at once confusion and 

 uncertainty. For example, in the case of phylloxera, which is now 

 well-established in New Zealand, in view of the wretched obstructiveness 

 of the colonists, he had considered it his duty to strongly recommend to 

 the Government and to Parliament the total destruction of all vines in 

 the infected districts. At once the newspapers threw, as it were, a wet 



