THE PRESENT POSITION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 441 



6. INDIAN CONDITIONS. 



We have briefly reviewed our position in all that concerns economic 

 entomology in itself, but our review is not complete until we have glanced 

 at the nature of the problem before us, the peculiar conditions we meet 

 with in the course of our work. 



I think we are justified in assuming that the problem before us is a 

 small one compared with that of some other countries. Relatively to the 

 size of India, to the area under cultivation, and to the value of the crops 

 grown, the ravages of insect pests appear to be small. Why is this ? A 

 complete answer cannot be given as yet, but some very obvious reasons 

 present themselves. Climatic conditions must greatly influence insect 

 increase : the long dry season, the variations in temperature, the heavy 

 monsoon rainfall, these are not favourable to insect increase. 



I believe that an equable warm climate with well-distributed rainfall, 

 such as obtains in the West Indies, is far more favourable to the rapid 

 increase of pests than is the Indian climate. The variety of Indian 

 climatic physical features favours the multiplication of species, not the 

 enormous increase of any one species. A second important factor is the 

 variety of crops, not only a variety in different parts of India but a va- 

 riety in every place and at different seasons of the year. The practice of 

 growing different crops in the dry season to those of the wet season, with 

 the fact that for some time there may be no crops save those under irriga- 

 tion, must make the increase of a pest very hard. The migratory locust 

 certainly is an exception, perhaps because of his omnivorous food habits 

 and migration over large distances. 



I think we may confidently attribute a great deal to these facts and 

 we may add a third of almost equal importance — the pests have not 

 been introduced. Wherever insect pests are studied, the introduced 

 species rank amongst the worst if they do not make up a great proportion 

 of them. The United States shows this very clearly ; and in the West 

 Indies, of the worst insect pests, the Coccidce, two-thirds of the very 

 destructive species are introduced. There is not time to enter into this 

 question in detail ; a perusal of the reports of entomologists, particularly 

 of those in the United States, will show what importance is attached to 

 this point. 



On the whole we may fairly consider we have a good deal in our 

 favour, a distinct natural advantage from the peculiar conditions of the 



