8(5 E. P. Stebbing — Economic Entomology. [A pl{ - 



vestigations will result in most advantageous results. Of course it may 

 be found that occasionally recommendations will conflict upon this point. 

 For instance, a variety which the Entomologist has proved to be least 

 attacked by insect pests many prove to be seriously infected by fungus 

 ones, but it is not improbable that many of these latter follow, or are the 

 result of insect attacks, the insect committing the first injury to the plant 

 and thus providing a means of ingress for the fungus. 



The variety of seed least subject to attack and the variety of plant 

 should, then, be discovered and introduced to the ryot and we shall then 

 have made a great advance in dealing with our numerous insect foes. 



SUMMARY. 



In the above paper we have shortly considered the Science of Econo- 

 mic Entomology : its study, aims, and objects. After a few brief words 

 on the importance of the work in such a great agricultural country as 

 India, we proceeded to define the term as the study of the life-histories 

 of injurious insects with a view to instituting remedial measures against 

 them, this latter question involving an acquaintance with the habits of 

 insects, predaceous and parasitic, upon the noxious pests and with the 

 capabilities of various insecticides and other remedial measures. We 

 saw that the aid of the Economic Botanist would be required to 

 identify parasitic insect fungi and to prepare cultures of such for use 

 against crop pests. The difference between the sciences of Botany and 

 Entomology was glanced at and the impossibility of a man being an 

 Economic expert in both in a country the size of India pointed ou! - and 

 reasons for this statement given. Attention was also drawn to the differ- 

 ence in the work of the Museum and Economic or field Entomologist. How 

 the former was concerned with the classificatory portion of the work 

 and with the care of the valuable State type collections, whereas the 

 latter confined himself to the study of the life-histories and habits of 

 insects in the field with the object of working out remedies against 

 them. 



After mentioning the position of the Insecta in the Animal Kingdom 

 and describing shortly the various stages in the life of an insect, we saw 

 that the mouth parts of insects vary, some having a biting mouth, others 

 a sucking one, whilst others again have a combination of the two ; and 

 that the presence of a particular form of mouth might decide the nature 

 of the insecticide to be used against them. 



It was then shown that the first step in the work was the study of 

 the life-history, it being a cardinal point that the more one knows about 

 such the greater will be the chance of devising some remedy against the 

 pest. Many insects, we saw, can only be attacked in their active feeding 



