INSECT LIFE IN INDIA. 685^ 



yield surprising instances of their value to man when they have been 

 studied. 



In addition to the groups of Insects of direct value to man as indis- 

 pensable allies, the Hymenoptera includes others whose usefulness 

 comes from quite a different cause ; these groups minister to his physical 

 wants, providing him with certain products such as honey und wax, 

 suitable as articles of food and commerce. The family Apidce contains 

 the greater number of these Insects such as Apis dorsata and indica 

 considered above. The Apidce play yet another important part in 

 nature. The Insects largely depend upon the nectar of flowers and 

 pollen for their food supplies and to obtain it visit, and often enter, 

 the corollas of flowers. In this way they distribute the pollen, by 

 serving as carrier, from plant to plant and consequently play a great 

 part in the fertilization of the flowers and the ultimate fructification 

 of the plant. The great usefulness of bees and many other Insects in 

 this respect is by no means adequately recognised. 



The Diploptera (wasps) and the Fossoria (sand-wasps) also attack 

 caterpillars and other Insects, paralysing them and subsequently laying 

 their eggs in the body and they may therefore be termed useful 

 insects. The sand-wasps also attack grasshoppers, laying their eggs in 

 Insects of this nature of several times their own bulk. For instance 

 Sphex lobatus attacks the large cricket Brachytrupes achoetinus which 

 has already been shown to be a pest in India. 



Little is known about the usefulness or otherwise of the Scoliidcc in 

 India, but in Madagascar a species lays its eggs in the rhinoceros beetle 

 (Oryctes) which attacks palms in the island. It may turn out that 

 a species infests and keeps in check the Oryctes in India which is a 

 serious pest to date and cocoanut palms in Bengal, Madras and Bombay. 



Our knowledge of the habits of the Formicidce in India is not as yet 

 sufficiently extensive to enable any definite remarks to be made 

 upon their usefulness to man or otherwise. The bamboo-ant, (Ecopftylla 

 smaragdina, feeds largely upon caterpillars, and so is possibly of some 

 use in keeping down defoliating pests. 



From the above remarks it may be said that, taken as a whole, the 

 Order Hymenoptera must be considered as one of considerable usefulness- 

 to man. 



(To be continued.) 

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