Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Answers to correspondents', Weekly times, 17 October 1885, Farmers gazette supplement, p. 1 (B85.10.05). It is introduced by 'Name of Insects and Remedy for Same. J.C., Warrnambool. — Baron von Mueller, to whom we submitted your specimens, replies as follows:—'.

The h empipterous

2

hemipterous?

insect sent from Warrnambool i s a so-called " wood-bug," the name, according to the museum collections brought together b y Professor M'Coy for public information, being Dind y mus versicolor. To combat this gregarious and destructive moth,

3

French (1891-1911), part 1, pp. 89-91, uses 'Harlequin Fruit Bug' as his preferred common name. It is not a 'moth', and this may have been an editorial change to M's text.

the ordinary rem edies mig ht be tried, such as dusting with a bellows some fl our of sulphur over the plants attacked, also syringing with water in which tobacco h as been steeped, or some soap has b e en dissolved. Kerosene or coal oil, mixed with a quantity of wood ashes or so me soda for a few hours, and then made to dissolve, would give a mixture adverse to all such kinds of insects, and this remedy, of course, could be prepared easily and applied with an ordinary ga rd en syringe. Raising smoke t h ick among or under the affected trees might suffocate many of the bug s and drive the rest away . It should be found out how and where this wood-bug deposits its ova, so that measures for their destruction could be devised an d adopted accordingly. Mr. C . Frendo,

4

Typesetter's error for French? i.e. Charles French Snr.

who has given much attention in watching the effect of noxious in sects on v ariou s plants, and who h as placed an interesting collection of wood specimens and twigs infested by various larvae, etc., in the museum gallery of the Exhi b ition Building, suggests that if this insect, in its early stage, gets copiously into trees or shrubs, to shake the latter while an umbrella is placed underneath, by which means lots could be caught, and then thrown into water for destruction.