THE SIREX WOODWASP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 13

THE SIREX WOODWASP.

FILMS AND BIOLOGY. (From Our Own Correspondent. ) LONDON, January 8. An example of the application of the sound film to biological research was given at a - special performance this week at the London Pavilion. In this the life and habits of the woodwasp, .which used to play havoc to timber in New Zealand, was shown. Dr R. Neil Chrystal, under whose direction the film was prepared by the British Instructional Filmfe, described what had been dope in New Zealand to destroy this insect by two different parasites, the more successful being the Ryhssa. He expressed the hope that the woodwasp film might be only the first chapter in a complete text-book on the habits of the more important Empire forest insects. Among the spectators w r ere 600 scientists who heartily cheered the display. The three reels of the film depict first the marauding habits of the woodwasp in boring holes through timber, especially through larch and pine; then the parasite is shown pursuing the same means until it finds the w r asp and poisons it. The film which took two years to prepare, was made by British instructional ih collaboration with the Imperial Forestry Institute, as previously stated, under the direction of Dr Chrystal.