PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 1009 



(if) Section 5 (2) of tlie Pest Act (II of 1914) empowers Local 

 Governments to punish breach of any rule made under 

 Section 5 by a fine which may extend to one thousand 

 Rupees. 



With reference to the importation of insect pests I may mention Dr. Gougb. 

 ^that the scale-insect that we are fighting in Egypt was found by me 

 on some oranges that I had at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. It 

 would be best for the Government of India to take measures against 

 the importation of fruit from Egypt. Our importation laws are ad- 

 ministered by the Entomological Department and not by the Customs 

 Department. 



AVhat is the name of this scale ! Mr. Ramakrishna 



Ayyar. 



Aspidiotiis ficus. Dr. Gough. 



But we already have that in India and it is widely distributed and Mr.Fletcher. 

 has been foimd in Calcutta on palms. 



I might say that it is not possible to avoid all insects coining in. Dr_ Gough. 

 Samples without value do get in without our knowledge. With us the 

 matter is simplified as our only ports of entry for fruit are Port Said, 

 Alexandria and Suez. 



With us the ports of entry are so scattered and at such enormous Mr. Fletcher. 

 distances apart and the importations of plants at some ports are so small 

 and infrequent that it is at once imeconomic to keep an entomological 

 staff at each port to do the fumigation and impossible to suj^ervise the 

 work properly in the absence of a proper Entomological Service. That 

 is our difficidty at present.. If we can only get a properly organized 

 Entomological Service with a sufficiently large staff it should be possible 

 to arrange for at least the proper supervision of this work if not for 

 doing it entirely. An Entomological Supervisor, for example, in going 

 his rounds to inspect the work of the Provincial Entomological Assistants, 

 could take in these ports on his rounds and see that the work was being 

 done properly. 



I should like to draw the attention of the Meeting to a paper read Mr. Ramakrishna 

 by me at the last Science Congress at Bombay on " Some Foreign Insect ^y^*^- 

 Pests not required in India." 



One point about a paper of this sort is that it is comparatively easy jj^ Fletcher 

 to make a list of foreign pests that we have not got and do not want 

 to get, but we do not know in all cases whether what is a pest in one 

 coimtry will actually be a jjest in another country. As I have pointed 

 out in my paper, an insect whicl^is more or less harmless in its own native 

 home often becomes a bad pest when introduced into a new country, 

 and probably the opposite is sometimes the case. As regards foreign 



