A Destructive Grub

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 146, 7 June 1892, Page 2

A Destructive Grub

; ♦- Yesterday we received a small box containing some very lively specimens of a grub which has made its appearance at Mr Cunningham's, near Beaconsfield. We publish the letter received at tbe same time, and recommend our farmer readers to give the subject their most; earnest attention. A second case containing some of the grubs will be forwarded either to-day, or to-morrow, to Sir James Hector in Wellington, and any information he gives as to the origin of this new— or for all we know, old plague, how to prevent it appearing at all, or how to eradicate it when it does appear, will be duly published in our columns. In the meantime any knowledge in the possession of anyone living near at hand on the subject, we will be glad to have, in order that by its free dissemination all available means of preventing the further spread of these grubs may be used. [Since the above was in type we have referred to the late Mr Thomas Mackay's manuul of the grasses and forage plants useful to New Zealand, and on comparing the specimens sent to us with the drawing, we find it agrees with the description of the cockchafer : the author says this is a pest of a apecially destructive character. The cockchafter does not live long after ifc has passed into its perfect state, but it lives nearly four years in the grub or larva state. The female deposits her eggs in the earth. The whole grass of a field has often been destroyed in a short time by these grubs, and the beetles themselves strip off the foliage of trees like locusts. Rooks and other birdß render great service by preventing excessive multiplication of cockchafters; but; it is a difficult matter to destroy the grub, from the depth (four inches) in which the insect depoßits her eggs in the earth.] To-day Mr John Stevens announces himself as a candidate for the Rangitikei seat, in compliance with the request of the several deputations which waited on him recently.