FRIEND OR ENEMY ?

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 58, 2 December 1907, Page 2

FRIEND OR ENEMY ?

AN INSECT PEST. Tho kntana is a plant allied to tlio verbena. 'and tho spccies vary rather .widely in character and size. The lantaiia .of Jamaica is called wild sage. In other parts an allied species is used lor. making a, stimulating drink, and it has a limited valuo as a substitute for tea. In Hawaii, however, it is regarded by tlio sugar planters,.as a downright weed, and in order to avoid the trouble of extirpating it by proper mechanical inotliods, the planters have at various times got their Society's entomologist to import insects that were expectcd to kill it. It is typical, of tlio selfishness of man that in order to save a littlo trouble in the cultivation of their sugar the planters havo distributed' an insect (tlio Maui Slight) that shuts out' effectively any prospect of men ever successfully growing toa on thoir island.' Tho question of importing insects has an' .interest for New Zealnnders. Mr. • Froggatt. tho entomologist, of New South Wales, wlio, oil behalf ot his-Govern-ment and the Governments of Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia, has recently started on a voyage of discovery among tho world's insect pests and friends, has thus reported in tho "Victorian Journal of-Agri-eiilturo" his Impression of tho Hawaiian experiment :-r ••• ; v"v' " Tlio question of parasites introduced by the entomologist of tlio Sugar Planters'; Association on the lantana scrub is a-compli-cated business, and I travelled over a great deal of country to see for myself-the actual conditions of . tho lantana and tho insect pests that havo been- introduced- from Mexico, America, and India. It lias been claimed Uiat the lantana is entirely destroyed in some districts through these insect parasites, but, though there is no doubt under certain conditions its growth'has boon cheeked, and great quantities of the flowers and seed buds destroyed; it is not dead, and the bulk of it will havo to bo removed, when clearing, by mechanical methods. Quite a number of insects were propagated oil lantana —two moths, a leaf-mining fly, a gall-making ily, and a small leaf-bug. The latter is most oifectivo, attacking 'the under surface of the leaves and causing them to drop olf. Oil tlio very dry shallow soil on hill tops the lantana is very .sick. This bug, iioivover, is very closely allied to our native olivo bug, which destroys the foliage of tho cultivated olivo, and. we could never allow it to bo introduced into Australia under any conditions. ■ The pest., however, Iliac," ill my opinion, has clone nice damage and is still at work on the lantana, is the Maui blight (orthesia insigtiir.) — one of the mealy bugs known as a very destructive post, to tlio tea-plant and other shrubs in India and the East.. It must, b'o stated, however, that tho entomologist did not introduce this pest; it was accidentally introduced on the island of Maui, but has been widely spread all over tho other islands by tho ranchmen, and is attacking other plants, and may bo a verv ((rave plant pest, to reckon with in tile future. I therefore strongly adviso that under no conditions should we introduce-any of these insects into .Australia to kill lantana. Even if they killed every .bush out, our conditions, of 'plant life are so different that it is hard to say. where tho pest insects would stop after the original host plant died Ollt. ;