[Gutenberg 48394] • An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand / The Scale Insects (Coccididae)

The number and variety of the insect pests which live on the plants of New Zealand, whether native or introduced, and the damage which they frequently do, form the excuse for the appearance of this work. The descriptions of these insects in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, or in works published in Europe and America, are not easily accessible to the general reader, and are also much scattered and fragmentary. It was thought therefore that the time had arrived when the information which might be useful to gardeners and tree-growers, as well as to students, might be summarized and brought together in a compendious form, and the present volume is an attempt towards this.

In order to render this work complete a second volume is necessary, which should include the large number of other destructive insects preying upon various plants. For example, the "pine-blight" (Kermaphis), the "American blight" (Eriosoma), the "black leech" (Tenthredo), the cabbage caterpillar, the turnip "fly," the various aphides on roses, geraniums, &c., the grass-grub (Odontria), the codlin-moth, the borers, weevils, wireworms, and a number of others are in different places damaging trees and plants, and it would be useful to collect in one volume information regarding them. The author has had in contemplation the preparation of such a volume, and it is hoped that it may be at some future time published.