SECOND EDITION. PLAGUE OF CATERPILLARS.
INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS. (Per Vkess Association , .) CHRISTCHURCH, April 11. A local scientist has made some interesting observations on the caterpillar pest that did such extensive damage to the crops in Canterbury lately. He collected fifty ,and placed them in a box with two inches of earth on the bottom. He covered it with glass to facilitate observation. In 24 hours every caterpillar had sunk into the soil. In seven days every one was a chrysalis. In 28 clays a batch had been converted into moths of a slatey grey colour having four wings. With the moths appeared several blue flies not unlike blow flies but smaller and more active. About a third of the chrysalides had been destroyed by a maggot, and the scientist concluded that the blue fly was the natural enemy of the pest which laid an egg on tlie caterpillar's back and the egg hatched out underground.
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume 9187, Issue XLI, 11 April 1910, Page 8
Word Count
154SECOND EDITION. PLAGUE OF CATERPILLARS. Manawatu Standard, Volume 9187, Issue XLI, 11 April 1910, Page 8
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