February, '16] HOWARD: HAWAIIAN INSECT INTRODUCTIONS 175 



During the summer of 1908 efforts were made to send this tachinid 

 to Hawaii by means of a relay breeding station at Hong Kong, but 

 failed. Later, in British New Guinea, Muir found the same tachinid 

 destroying a borer in sugar cane, identical with the Hawaiian species, 

 and destrojdng a high percentage. He succeeded in breeding it in 

 cages. He was taken down with typhoid, and on arriving at Brisbane, 

 Australia, was forced to go to a hospital. Hi? parasite cages were 

 sent on to Honolulu, but, wanting proper care, the parasites died. 



After his recovery he met J. C. Kershaw, an entomologist whom 

 he had previously met at Macao, China, at Brisbane in January, 

 1910. Kershaw prepared cages at Moresby, North Queensland, and 

 INIuir went to New Guinea where he collected puparia of the tachinid 

 and sent them to Kershaw. The latter placed these in cages contain- 

 ing the prepared sugar canes containing numerous borer larvae. 



Muir continued to send puparia until Kershaw had the tachinids 

 satisfactorily breeding, when he joined him, and, taking fresh puparia 

 from the cages, went to Fiji where another breeding station was 

 established. When this was successfully done, Kershaw abandoned 

 the cages in Queensland and went to Fiji with more puparia. When 

 he arrived, Muir went to Honolulu with tachinids, leaving Kershaw 

 in Fiji where he remained a few more weeks and then came on to 

 Honolulu with additional parasites. 



Muir arrived in Honolulu -^dth hving parasites in August, 1910, and 

 Kershaw arrived the following month. Part of the parasites were 

 liberated and others retained in breeding cages. 



The breeding continued for two years in the cages; the colonies were 

 liberated on sugar plantations as rapidly as they were available. 

 They bred continuously, each generation requiring about six weeks, 

 and there were about six generations a year. 



After six months they were found established and increasing in 

 plantations where the first liberations were made, and in a year spread 

 to all parts of these plantations, sometimes over a distance of five miles. 



In 1914 Swezey reported (Journal of Economic Entomology, 

 December 14, 1914) that they were estabUshed almost entirely 

 throughout the sugar cane districts of the islands. ' 



Prior to the introduction of parasites, hand collecting had been 

 practiced on some plantations. On one plantation, in 1913, 27,010 

 ounces were collected; in 1914, on the same plantation, only 3,440 

 ounces were collected, showing a reduction of over 87 per cent. 



In August, 1915, I found the borer rare on Oahu. In no case did 

 I find a living larva. Mr. Swezey and Mr. Osborn found for me a 

 number of burrows, but in every case when they were opened the 

 larva had been destroyed and the puparia of the tachinid were present. 



