PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING ial 
inquiries, and the results of his experiments and observations you have 
just now heard from him. 
We have heard a good deal about Harias, but there is one other line Mr, Fletcher. 
of work that we have been doing at Pusa and that is the question of rela- 
tive intensity of attack on various kinds of cotton. We have got cotton 
of various kinds from practically all cotton-growing tracts in India and 
have been growing them here in parallel rows and keeping careful counts 
of the relative amount of infestation, whilst several species of Hibiscus 
and other malvaceous plants have also been used for comparative tests. 
The figures of these trials are not yet ready and I think it is rather early 
to discuss them, as the experiments require to be repeated and checked, 
but the question of immune varieties is one that you might keep before 
you in considering the control of pests such as Cotton Bollworm. 
Has anyone anything more to say about Karias fabia or E. insulana ? 
How are the living parasites sent from Pusa to the Punjab ? Mr. Ramakrishna 
=»  Ayyar. 
They are sent in small postal boxes [a specimen exhibited| made of py. Fletcher. 
strong cardboard pierced with small holes, such as are used for sending 
out silkworm eggs. The boxes are lined with fine muslin or gauze and 
inside the boxes are placed the newly-formed cocoons of the Rhogas. 
The affected cotton-bolls or Hibiscus pods or shoots are collected and 
cut open and the Harias larve taken out and those which are parasitized 
are kept until the parasitic grubs have spun up ; they spin up on pieces 
of paper or on the bracts of the affected bolls or similar material and 
the cocoons are removed, together with the surrounding material to 
which they are attached, and this is suspended in the box by threads. 
The pupal period is about five to seven days, according to temperature, 
and the adult flies may emerge in the boxes on the way but are kept in 
by the gauze lining and usually reach in a living condition. 
If the affected bolls are sent by post, we find that the result 1s not 
satisfactory, as the weight of the bolls crushes the Harzas larvee and any 
adult Rhogas which may emerge en route. 
The unparasitized Harias larve are reared out and the moths liberated 
inthe breeding plots to provide host-material for the parasites. 
Gelechia gossypiella |“ South Indian Insects,” p. 454, tab. 42] occurs Mr. Fletcher. 
throughout the Plains of India, Burma and Ceylon as a pest of cotton, 
serious in most localities, especially so in the United Provinces, Punjab, 
and North-West Frontier Province. In all districts exotic 
varieties seem most subject to attack. The larva bores into the bolls, 
feeding on the seeds and spoiling the lint, and also does some damage 
to buds and flowers when bolls are not available, but when bolls are formed 
these are much preferred. Many of the attacked bolls drop off and 
