142 



secured in the whole length of my stay in Ban^^alore, and these 

 did not even produce Opius flctchcri. The Ziziphus trees, in 

 the compound of Br. Coleman, the Director of Agriculture in 

 Mysore, furnished a quantity of infested fruit;, from which para- 

 sites were reared, and as nothing- else seemed obtainable for 

 months, in view of the dry conditions prevailing', which were 

 expected to continue until the summer monsoon set in, jDrepa- 

 rations were made to (le])art with the iuiul)e fruit-fly parasites 

 then in hand. 



While on the subject of Syiitouiosphyniiu indiciim, it is de- 

 sired to call attention to the obscurity which surrounds this 

 much-sought insect. On my previous visit to India, the object 

 was to secure natural enemies of the melon-fly, Bactroccra cii- 

 curbitae, and consequently my efforts were confined entirely to 

 the rearing of this insect under conditions which would enable 

 me to discover its parasites. After two months' work, during 

 which no sign of Compere's parasite appeared, the elimination 

 of Bactroccra ciicurhitac as a host seemed evident. The re- 

 sult of this year's search furnishes no criterion, as it was not 

 possible, as wished, to experiment with other species of fruit- 

 flies found at Bangalore, owing to the dearth of fruit. It seems 

 to me, however, that the only logical view to hold with regard 

 to this parasite is, that it is attached strictly to some one of the 

 many species of fruit-fly existing in India, besides Bactroccra 

 cuciirhitac. The insect is unknown to any of the Indian ento- 

 mologists, although fruit-flies have been the subject of investi- 

 gation for some years. A careful study of Compere's report 

 would indicate that he himself did not know the host of his 

 parasite, for though the insect was secured in a guava orchard, 

 all sorts of fruits were brought into the orchard from the out- 

 side, and the pupae secured from the dift'erent fruits, re])resent- 

 ing, no doubt, several species, were evidently mixed in packing, 

 so that the parasites which emerged later may have come from 

 any one of them. The correct way to go about recovering 

 S\ntoniosphyruni indicum, therefore, it is believed, is to in- 

 vestigate methodically the parasitism of each of the different 

 species of fruit-flies found in the neighborhood of Bangalore ; 

 but this would require many months' careful and painstaking 

 work, vrhich the government will probably not care to under- 

 take. 



Before leaving Bangalore, a new method of transporting fig- 

 wasps, viz., in fruiting marcotted plants, was communicated to 

 me from the Philippines by Dr. Williams, and as it seemed par- 

 ticularly applicable to the transportation of the Indian species of 

 wasps, an engagement was entered into with the Superintendent 

 of the ^Maharajah of ^Mysore's estates and Bangalore Botanic 

 Garden, Air, G. H. Krumbiegel, to have marcottings of Ficus 

 clastica made by one of his assistants, in the Teesta A'alley or 

 in Assam, according to advices from his agents in the north 



