26 Animis Entomological Society of America [Vol. IX^ 



has taken place which renders the chances of combatting the 

 insect successfully more hopeful. The most serious pest of the 

 bananas in Fiji is the weevil Cosmopolites sordidus Germ. ; as 

 many as 100,000 individuals having been collected in one 

 month on a single plantation. This widely distributed pest 

 was introduced in 1901. As enemies in the form of predacious 

 beetle larva occur in Java and Dutch Borneo, and in view of 

 the impossibility of controlling the pest by artificial means, 

 Mr. Jepson visited Java in 1913 to study the insect predators of 

 this weevil and among them he found the Histerid beetle, 

 PlcBsius javanus Er., the most effective. Five thousand of 

 these beetles were collected and three thousand seven hundred 

 and ninety-two were successfully transported to Fiji where 

 they were distributed in lots of 500 upon different badly infested 

 banana plantations. Subsequent visits showed that the beetles 

 were alive and reproducing after four months in the country 

 and good results are expected from this interesting experiment, 

 which indicates the progressive character of Mr. Jepson's work. 



India. 



The control of insect pests in India is a subject of singular 

 interest, not so much on account of the unusual nature of the 

 insects which are encountered there but owing chiefly to the 

 character of the cultivators, the nature of the country and the 

 climatic conditions. Agriculture constitutes at present the 

 chief industry of the country and about sixty-five per cent, of 

 the people are dependent upon it as a means of livelihood. The 

 European planter is practically negligible as a constituent 

 factor, the dominant class being the cultivators. These are 

 native Indians who live on the land and have had a very limited 

 education. In many cases they have inherited a perfect system 

 of agriculture. But in the face of an insect outbreak their 

 preconceived notions of such calamities, their aversion to taking 

 life directly and their lack of any kind of material equipment 

 for fighting pests make the application of modern methods of 

 insect control almost an impossibility. Prof. Maxwell Lefroy 

 who did valuable work of a fundamental character in India, has 

 described some of the prevalent ideas, he says: "An intelligent 

 cultivator growing sugar-cane under irrigation on an extremely 

 sound system with good manure, believes the cane-borer comes 

 with the well-water used for irrigation." He has no conception 



