104 



tion of these revealed the melon-fly, I utilized a small room in 

 the hotel as a laboratory, and was soon rearing hundreds of flies. 

 Before I had a chance to breed the parasites brought from Java, 

 the same species appeared in Indian material, and in a very short 

 time I had a flourishing colony. I spent five weeks or more in 

 India, rearing about 10,000 flies. Out of these Opiiis flctchcri 

 came abundantly, and I was also able to cultivate a small lot of 

 Spalaugias, but nothing further appeared, and after my own ex- 

 tensive work and the assurance of Mr. Fletcher, the Imperial 

 Entomologist, that nothing else had ever been bred by them from 

 D. cucurhitae, I decided I had exhausted this field and it was time 

 to move on to the Philippines. All the while in India I was 

 looking closely for Synteinosphynun indicum, the fruit-fly para- 

 site introduced by Compere into Australia, by Lounsbury into the 

 Cape, and by Silvestri into Italy, but I saw nothing of it, and the 

 Indian Entomolog'ist could give me no information about it be- 

 yond what I already knew. 



Leaving Bangalore on the night of 23rd December for Co- 

 lombo, I was detained by the Indian police at Dhanuskodi for 

 three days en route, but arrived in ample time to catch the Span- 

 ish mail 31st December, and after an uneventful voyage of 18 

 days reached IManila with about 75 living examples of the In- 

 dian parasite, Opius Hetcheri, which I had carried with me on 

 leaving India. While stopping in Singapore I had also secured 

 infested fruit to breed the parasite en route, and from this ma- 

 terial I subsequently got 64 additional individuals. 



In IManila I received very generous assistance from the Bureau 

 of Agriculture and Science, and established a laboratory in a 

 room set aside for me at the latter institution. I found fruit 

 very scarce and practically no cultivated cucurbits. Under the 

 circumstances I was obliged to depend entirely for rearing and 

 breeding purposes on Momordicas. These fruits are dry and do 

 not give the same trouble with regard to mould that cucumbers 

 do : at the same time they contain very few maggots, and are got 

 only with great exertion and loss of time. As a consequence 

 my stock of parasites dwindled, and I was disappointed in the 

 hope of finding additional species. I spent nearly three months 

 in the Philippines, rearing about 18,000 flies, but nothing new 

 disclosed itself. This seemed strange in view of the rich fruit- 

 fly fauna there, which is known to harbor several species of 

 Opiine parasites. I also lost the small colony of SpaJaugia, one 

 generation running to males. 



It was unfortunate that at the time of leaving Manila, the 

 steamer connections were such that I was obliged to remain in 

 Hongkong a week. I used this intermission in the voyage to the 

 best advantage, but my fruit-fly parasites had dwindled to very 

 small proportions bv the time of mv arrival in Honolulu, on 

 10th May, 1916, 



From this small stock, however, the parasite was successfully 



