INSECT TRAVELLERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 165, 14 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

INSECT TRAVELLERS.

HOW SHIPS SPREAD SPECIES. Ship cargoes are often responsible for the introduction of quite new species of insects in different lands. Banana bunches often hide poisonous reptiles and insects which travel olng distances, only to bite or sting the hand of some receiver of fruit. Often they escape alive and breed their kind. Many venomous snakes have been thus introduced into lands where none existed beforeStrange creatures have been imported on the blooms of orchids, and West Indian insects have travelled in Easter lily blossoms. Destructive moths migrate in fruit ships. Flying insects often follow ships. One curious case was that of a vessel from the tropics followed by a swarm of butterflies. Out of sight of the shore, they hid in the cabins and holds, emerging forty days later when the ship reached England. Thus originated quite a new species of butterfly in the British Isles.