April, '19] HOLLOWAY: PARASITES OF SUGAR CANE BORER 177 



plants, the procedure was to walk through the fields until a dying 

 plant was found, then dissect it carefully and examine it for either a 

 borer or a parasite. The moth borer larvse and pupae were taken on 

 the chance that parasites would emerge from a certain percentage of 

 them. Parasite larvae or puparia were very carefully collected and 

 brought to the laboratory, where the puparia were placed in tin salve 

 boxes with damp sphagnum moss and cotton. The salve boxes were 

 in turn packed in pasteboard mailing cases and sent to New Orleans. 

 At Mr. Barber's suggestion, holes were made in both the salve boxes 

 and the tin bottoms of the mailing cases for ventilation, and it was 

 found that fewer parasites died en route when shipped in this way. 

 About 33 per cent arrived in New Orleans alive. All parasites were 

 sent by ordinary mail, refrigeration not being used. 



On reaching their destination, the puparia were placed on damp sand 

 under glasses, and when the flies emerged they were transferred to 

 cages containing growing cane infested with the moth borer. The 

 most successful cage was a large one built over a corner of a sugar cane 

 field. Ripe sweet fruits and honey-water were given the flies, such 

 substances having been recommended by Mr. O. H. Swezey, of the 

 Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Experiment Station, as being satisfactory 

 for a tachinid of similar habits. The parasites passed through two and 

 possibly three generations in New Orleans. 



Of the other two parasites in Cuba, one is Bassus siigmaterus Cresson 

 (Microdus) and the other Apanteles sp. They are comparatively rare, 

 and it was thought best not to attempt to introduce them without 

 further study. During the summer over 650 tachinid puparia, repre- 

 senting about 600 parasitized moth borers, were collected, while the 

 moth borers attacked by the other two parasites amounted to not 

 more than a half dozen by each one. 



It was hoped by means of heated greenhouses to cause the tachinids 

 to breed continuously through the winter, and two greenhouses con- 

 taining growing cane were provided, but by December it became evi- 

 dent that the parasites were in a dormant state. On December 2 one 

 puparium was found in a field cage, but the fly did not emerge and it 

 seems that the insect is dead. It is believed that other parasites are 

 present within the host larvae and will emerge in the spring. 



If the parasites become established in Louisiana and are as efficient 

 there as they are in Cuba where they have to contend, by the way, with 

 a secondary parasite, they will do much to control a pest which causes 

 a serious loss annually. With a maximum infestation of the moth 

 borer, it has been calculated both by entomologists and by sugar 

 planters that the annual loss amounts to over 1,000 pounds of sugar 

 per acre. Investigations to be published in Department Bulletin No. 



