WOOD BORING INSECT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 269, 13 October 1932, Page 3

WOOD BORING INSECT.

SUPPLIES OF PARASITE. Per Press Association. NELSON, Oct. 12. During the last few years the attention of those interested in the commercial production of pine trees has been drawn to the activities of the steel-blue liorntail borer, which is now well established in the Dominion. Though it docs not damage vigorous trees, it is much too common to be discarded as of minor importance. A parasite of the borer being known to occur in Engla.nd, Dr. D. Miller, director of the entomological department at the Cawthron Institute, arranged with the director of the Farnham Royal Parasite Laboratory for the parasite to be studied and for supplies to be sent to New Zealand. This was quite a. new departure in biological control in that it was the first attempt made to transport the parasite of a wood boring insect from one country to another and establish it in a new environment. Several consignments of the parasite were sent to the Caw thron Institute, where the work has been carried out as one of the ma.jor operations. Though many of the parasites perished before reaching maturity, a considerable number survived and many were liberated among the borer-infected trees near Blenheim, Hanmer and Moutere.

The appearance of the first generation of the parasite to be reared in New Zealand is one of the most important developments in insect pest control during the year, and gives great promise of the successful establishment of the parasite and the subjection of the liorntail borer in the Dominion.