THE HORN-TAILED FLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1927, Page 9

THE HORN-TAILED FLY.

AS FAST AS A SPARROW.

HEFTY LOOKING CUSTOMERS

tßy Telegraph.— Special to "Star.")

WAXGAXUI, this day.

In view of the publicity given of late in Southern j>apers to the ravages of the Australian horn-tailed fly, it ia interesting to note that there ie sufficient of this class of fly in the Wanganui district at present to stock the whole of New Zealand. One settler informed a reporter that the fly was known in this district twenty years ago, if so, it did not multiply very freely, but it has every chance of doing so in future. "Blr. G. W. J. Richards, of Lewis Avenue, secured some interesting specimens from a piece of pinus macro carpa, in which i they had been operating. The wood was placed in a motor garage to drv, grubs hatched out, and the flys were caught in some cobwebs alongside the window. Others escaped when the door opened, and, remarked Mr. Richards, they can fly as fast as a sparrow. They are certainly hefty looking customers, and if they are as good on the wing as the grubs are at boring, they will soon establish themselves over a wide area. Mr. Richards states that they were also in pinus insignus in his locality, and he saw a branch that was snapped off b/ I the wind riddled with borer.