PAPAKURA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 420, 22 October 1918, Page 4

PAPAKURA.

Referring to a sample of grub recently found by Mr E. S. Cole and forwarded to Professor Drummond, of Auckland, for identification, the Professor, in his contribution "Nature Notes" in last Saturday's "Herald" Supplement says:—Mr E. S. Cole, Papakura, placed in a tin two eggbaskets of a green mantis. He found them on a nectarine tree. When he opened the tin after five weeks hundreds of young mantises had hatched out. As they arrived on my table they were slender, bright, green insects, with prominent heads, and they range from one-sixteenth of an inch to a quarter of an inch long, All the cells in the nests apparently had been vacated. I do not know of an entomoligst who has described the development of these insects in their strangely draped halls until they burst the layers of secreted substance that imprisoned them and come out into the light. It is a process as interesting as tho development of the grub and chrysalis of the butterfly. Mr Cole asks if there is any association between the presence of the egg-baskats on the tree and some withered fruit on it. The egg-baskets have no influence whatever on plants on which they are placed, and the mantis, so far from being injurious, does much good by destroying insects with baneful tendencies. The mantis, in fact, ranks with the ladybird as one of our introduced insects whose presence we have no reason to regret. Mr Cole states regretfully that he has not heard the piping of the weka iu Papakura for three years. He remembers the timo when this sociable bird was so plentiful at the extreme arm of Manukau Harbour as to be a nuisance to people who lived near its haunts. Its cover has not been destroyed there, and there is no apparent cause for its disappearance. Some two months ago the common black-backed gull often visited a paddock overlooked by Mr Cole's window. Large flocks arrived, and the members left regularly within a few minutes of one another about G p.m. Duo of them was ostracised. As soon as it approached the main body those near it drove it off. This took place scores of times until, finally rebuffed and discouraged, the outcast cauio no more.