FOE FOR BIDI-BIDI

INSECT FROM CHiLE SAMPLES COMING FOR TEST Whtil the annual loss to New Zealand is through bidi-bidi, or piripiri, it is diilicult to estimate, but it must be very considerable. It causes serious damage to lateclipped wool- and in some classes o£ country is so troublesome as a weed as not only to detract from the pasture value of the land but also to affect adversely the value of the "wool clip, especially from November onwards. In order to combat bidi-bidi the Noxious Weed Committee of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Kescarch has been on the look-out for some parasitical insect -which will destroy it, or, at any rate, prevent it from fruiting. The fruiting calyces of bidi-bidi have four angles, each with a barbed spine at llie apex. The whole forms a large spring burr which Nature arranges shall be broadcasted by clinging to some passing uiiiiiial. 13idi-bidi, a species of acacna, is widely distributed in the cooler and lenijiuriitc purls o[ the Southern Hemisphere, being especially abundant in South America. !lu certain districts in the Andes, especially in Chile and the Argentine, bidi-bidi is particularly rampant, so inquiries have been made in those quarters. Information has now come to hand that in those districts this noxious weed is attacked and prevented from seeding by an insect of the Tcnthrenidid species. A Chilean entomologist, llrofher Claude Joseph, of TemucOj has undertaken to send supplies of this insect to Now Zealand in order that they may be tested at the Cawthron Institute. In the meantime the life history and general characteristics of tiie insect will be subject to further investigation in Chile. It may bo too soon to prophesy, but the Department has great hopes that in the Tcnthrenidid will be found a parasite which will assist in ridding the Dominion of one of the curses of pastoralists.