THE WHITE PINE BEETLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13587, 8 May 1906, Page 5

THE WHITE PINE BEETLE.

TO' THE EDITOR. Sir,—Apropos to Mr .Tames Allen's note in your issuo of Saturday, it may be of interest ,to some of your readers to know, at anyratc, tho namo and nature of tho pest. , ' Some weeks ago a. piece of white pine planking infested with an insect rtas brought to the Museum by a cabinot-makor. On investigation it was found that the plank was riddled with galleries, in each of which some stage in the life history of a beetlo was living. A piece of this plank, with, specimens of these stages, is now on exhibition in. the Museum, amongst our native beetles, in the first gallerv. Tho namo of ■the beetle is Ophryons pallidus. As the (rouble commeucee before the pine tree is sawn up it is difficult to combat the pest: the grubs which do the harm, may live for months or perhaps a year in the _ wood, eating through it all Hie time, till it thanges into a resting pupa. I regret that I eannot suggest a cheap method of cure, but no doubt the Government Biologist will bo in a position to tlo 60, I am, etc., W. B. Benham. University Museum. — o- ~..' 1 TO TOE EDITOR. Sm,—Re your paragraph in the Times or Saturday, May 5, I am forwarding you a few samples of the borer at work. As you will soo by the sample, I have left them just as I cut them off the currant bushes, and I may tell you that this is tho insect that is doing all tho damage to tho white pino that you speak of, and I can speak from experience, as I was, before coming to Now Zealand, employed on stations in tho Rivcrina, part of New South Wales, for 10 years, and thai district is infested with Ihesc borers, which they term white ants over there. They cannot use white pmo ovor thero in the buildings. In the sample I am sending you the borer seems to me to bo a littlo larger, though, in its habits, just the samo as tho borer, or whito ant, in New South Wales. If you desire anjj further details about tho borer I would be very glad to refer you to some of the large pastoralists that I have been with, and I think that they would be able to give you further information about tho borer and its destructive habits, though I may say that on tho station whoro I was employed nothing was dono to stop its ravages further than to replaco one board by another.—l am, etc., Oamaru. Subscriber. o TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Somo of us have been hoping to notice something in your paper with reference to tho subject of borers mentioned by Mr Allen, M.H.R., and would like to know if they bear any affinity to tho white ants of India, so much dreaded there, and il thero is any remedy for the evil—l am. etc., Householder. . ♦ TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l see in your issuo of the sth a letter from Mr James Allen, ro the borer in buildings. I do not know its namo, but I have taken notice of it for the last 12 years in Christchurch, Lyttelton, Wellington, and many other places. I'have seon houses and furniture completely riddled, and have also seen it in auction "rooms. I think something should bo dono to warn pcoplo about it, for I think that is a means of its spreading.—l am, .etc,, Lovell's Flat, Maj-R " Hv