THE CODLIN MOTH PARASITE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 75, 29 March 1905, Page 3

THE CODLIN MOTH PARASITE.

« A FRIEND OF APPLE-GROWERS. The eyes of apple and pear growers have long been turned to the entomologist for help in the fight against their destructive pest the eodlin moth grub, and they will be interested in the progress that is being made with a West Australian fly that is calculated to go some distance toward responding to the appeal. Mr George Compere, Government entomologist, of West Australia, some time ago discovered that a variety of ichneumon fly in Spain, called Ephialtes Carbonarious, preyed upon the sleeping grub of the eodlin moth. About this time Mr Compere was travelling in search of a parasite of the fruit fly, perhaps the most destructive 'of all the fruitgrower's enemies. This he found in Brazil. The report of the discovery of a really effective parasite of the eodlin moth grub was received by fruitgrowers in most countries as being too good to be true, but in California the idea was given better credence, and at the present time Mr Compere is engaged there at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Horticulture propagating the insect for distribution. The parasite is of wasp-like appearance, and, introduced to new countries without the enemies which destroy it in others, it is hoped that it will reduce the mothinjured fruit to 2 or 5 per cent., instead of the present 50 per cent. Mr Compere says the parasite belongs to the ichneumon family, the members of which are generally the enemies of butterfly and beetle larvae. The variety which preys on the eodlin moth grub searches for the grub after it has entered its cocoon in the cracks of the fruit trees and deposits upon it an egg which hatches into an insect which eventually eats the eodlin chrysalis and thus destroys it. The insect is at present introduced into about ten fruitgrowing countries.