﻿MCiDE OF SEXDlXCi ()\ER PARASITES. 



During- the earlier part of our Australian trip all beneficial 

 insects sent from Cairns were placed in cold storage. The fact 

 that the coast steamers generally failed to make close connec- 

 tion with those leaving Brisbane or Sydney for Honolulu, and 

 the necessity for reshipment and removal from the cool cham- 

 l)er, made it a matter of great difficulty to get any insects over 

 alive. ( )f some ])redaceous species, however, such as certain 

 ladybirds and some others, a small percentage of some species 

 survived their long journey. These were packed in the way 

 usually adopted by Mr. Koebele. in specially made wooden 

 boxes nearly filled with slightly damped Sphai^iiiiiii moss, ddie 

 sides and bottoms are dove-tailed and hold well together in spite 

 of the great dampness of the cool chamber. These boxes are 

 made in three sizes, nesting within each other, the largest 

 4x3^x24 inches, the smaller 3;;|x2-4x2i; inches. When filled each 

 is securely l)Ound with strong string and the whole made up in 

 one |)arcel for shipment, being wrapi~)ed in several sheets of 

 stout packing paper. ' 



With the very minute and delicate egg-parasites of the Eulo- 

 phid and Mymarid families, which we were most anxious to 

 get established in the islands, various methods were used. The 

 cuttings of the midrib of cane-leaf containing eggs of leaf-hop- 

 per were made as short a time as possible before the steamer 

 sailed. That the)- contained numerous parasites was certain 

 from the samples we always retained to be sure on this point. 

 Though these samples were always very small compared with 

 the amount sent, yet we never failed to breed many parasites. 

 Some of the cuttings were packed in the wooden boxes above 

 described with moss, some in similar boxes with powdered char- 

 coal, and some in tin boxes. It does not appear, however, that 

 from the four consignments sent from Cairns, which must have 

 included great numbers of jjarasitized eggs, that an\- of these 

 ])arasites reached Honolulu alive. 



( )ur subsec|uent consignments, from Bundaberg. were more 

 successful, as was natural, the ports of departure of the Hono- 

 lulu steamers being so much nearer. Cuttings of cane leaves 

 containing leaf-hopper eggs sent from here produced both Eulo- 

 l)hid and Mymarid parasites on arrival in Honolulu, and in fact 

 some individuals of most of the Bundaberg species, that we 

 desired to establish, reached the islands alive. Thus two of the 

 Dryinid parasites of Siphanta (a Paradryinus and a Xcodryimis) 



