1903.] E. P. Stebbing— Economic Entomology. 83 



that this is the rule in India. It is the old fable of killing the goose 

 which lays the golden eggs ; for the want of elementary knowledge in this 

 respect undoubtedly leads to the extermination of many of man's friends. 

 These predaceous insects are often sent to the Museum as injurious to 

 crops, etc., when they have probably been doing, as far as in them lay, the 

 greatest good by keeping within bounds the much less obvious crop pest 

 in the fields. Two instances of this nature may be quoted here :— 



A certain beetle, by name Gicindela punctata, one of a family known 

 as the Tiger beetles owing to their predaceous proclivities, is common 

 in India. Both in its grub and mature beetle stage it actively preys 

 upon other insects and at times is to be found swarming in fields under 

 crops. As the insect is brightly coloured and very active, flying 

 and runuing well, it is very conspicuous, and if the crops are suffer- 

 ing from the attacks of insect pests the cultivator at once jumps 

 to the conclusion that the easily seen and numerous tiger beetle is the 

 cause. If he has heard that insects are at times a source of danger, he 

 at once proceeds to kill off as many of what are really his friends as 

 he can. The real cause of the damage is probably some small incon- 

 spicuous insect which escapes his notice, but upon which the tiger beetle 

 is actively feeding. 



The second instauce I will quote is to be found amongst the ladybird 

 beetles (Coccinellidae). Most people know what a ladybird beetle is like, 

 the little oval, reddish, brightly-coloured insects with spots on their back 

 of our childhood and nursery days. The greater bulk of these seemingly 

 harmless insects are eminently predaceous, both as grubs and beetles. 

 Plant lice, scale insects, etc., form their bill of fare and they suck them 

 as dry as one would suck an orange. One of these insects has earned 

 for itself a world-wide reputation, having been imported by the Ameri- 

 cans into the Florida orange groves at a time when the orchards were 

 so badly attacked by the fluted scale insect that trees were dying in 

 hundreds and the industry seemed threatened with extinction. The 

 importation of the ladybird beetle and the business-like way it set about 

 clearing the trees of the scale saved thousands of pounds worth of capital 

 and many homes from ruin. 



Observations are showing that these ladybird beetles are likely to 

 play an important part in India in the future in the hands of the Economic 

 Entomologist, for there is no doubt that we have many valuable 

 species in this country which only require proper investigation to prove 

 most useful and deadly weapons when wielded by the expert. Once their 

 life-histories have been studied and the localities they live in have been 

 ascertained, it will be a simple matter to arrange for obtaining consign- 

 ments for distribution to areas where it has been proved that their intro- 



