THE PRETTY LITTLE LADYBIRD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 15

THE PRETTY LITTLE LADYBIRD.

j Did you ever repeat the following or any similar* doggerel? 1 Ladybird. Ladybird, fly away home. Your house is on fire, your children are gone. I Have any of you been on the beach towards Lawyer's Head lat-ely? On the marram grass there ladybirds, a week ago, could be capu'red in hundreds, and I wondered what tho% were feeding upon. Can you tell me? But that is by the way." In last Monday's paper, under the heading of I" A Destructive Insect," there is a long Wire from Christchurch telling us that the .ladybird will probably be the salvation of many of our gum tree plantations, which [ are being attacked by a destructhe scale j insect. The ladybirds used to destroy this insect, however, appear to be different from these on the marram grass — that is, red. with black spots, whereas those Mr Kirk, the Government Biologist employs are of a colour bright blue, or nearly black. Are there any of these in or around Dunedin? Then, another question: Ha\e we this scale insect here? This ooccid gees by the learned name Eriococcus coriaceous, and it has a near relative, Eriococcus eucalypti ; both are common in Australia and Tasmania, but there they are kept in check by natural enemies not existing hero. But I had two special reasons for referI ring to the ladybird. First, in 1905, under the section Divisions of Biology and Horticulture, the New Zealand Department of Agriculture issued Bulletin No. 13, and we read there: "As has previously been stated, this coccid is, in Australia, kept in check