WHITE BUTTERFLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1938, Page 9

WHITE BUTTERFLY

HOW IT CAME TO DOMINION. The generally accepted theory was that the white butterfly came to New Zealand in the pupa form with ballast in one of the Continental boats, said Mr H. Small in an address on insects and garden pests at the monthly meeting of the New Plymouth Institute of Horticulture. He had been asked by a member if it was definitely known How the white butterfly had originated in New Zealand. The butterflies, said Mr Small, were found practically all over the Continent, though, peculiarly enough, they did very little damage in England, where their size was smaller than in New Zealand.

White butterflies had been more prevalent this year than previously, probably because of the long season, he said. Many people believed that the butterfly did the damage. That was not so, for the butterfly was the last stage in the life of the insect, and it was the caterpillar that did the damage. This caterpillar emerged from the butterfly that laid the eggs. The best method of dealing with the butterfly that he had seen was that adopted by Chinese market gardeners. They boiled lettuce and sprayed with the resultant white liquid. Mr Small spoke of other insect pests, including the cut-worm; the grass grub and its mature form, the small green beetle; the pear and cherry grub, which was very easily combated with white hellebore in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a gallon of water; the red spider; and the hawk moth, one of the fastest flying moths in New Zealand. Mr Small spoke at length on the scale insects of the Dominion. These thrived in New Zealand on account of the humid climate, and had become a very serious menace, he said. He did not think that there was any plant in New Zealand immune from them; they attacked even phormium tenax. common flax.

Such interesting New Zealand insects as the vegetable caterpillar and the katipo spider were also described by Mr Small. The katipo spider was one of the Dominion’s only two poisonous insects, he said. The other was a species of centipede rather rare now. Plants exhibited by members at the meeting included an example of the salad fruit or fei jao, shown by Mr L. B. Webster. This plant is very similar in foliage and flowers to the pohutukawa, but with mild conditions and in the absence of frost bears fruit. The Museum Institute at Auckland is to be asked to arrange, if possible, for a visit to Taranaki of Professor Scottsberg, eminent Swedish naturalist and director of the Botanical Gardens at Gothenberg, Sweden, who will be visiting New Zealand towards the end of the year.