PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 3 



youngest stages up to about an inch in length is well-known, 

 but between that size and four inches, specimens are extremely 

 rare, and we have been ignorant of their habits. It is now 

 found that they live in a burrow, \vhich prevents their capture 

 by the dredge. This burrow has two entrances, at either of 

 which the young lobster can emerge in case of danger, and it 

 is very active in its movements. An Imperial Entomological 

 Conference was held in London last June at which many 

 important matters were discussed, such as the immunity from 

 attacks of certain strains of plants, the destruction of harmful 

 insects by introducing parasites or fungi which kill them, the 

 cotton pests, especially in Egypt, which caused a loss of 

 10,000,000 in 1917, and which are controlled by destroying 

 yearly all material in the field in which the insects might 

 survive. The experiment of destroying all big game in a 

 district in Rhodesia is being tried as a means of preventing the 

 deadly sleeping sickness. The tsetse fly infects the big game 

 with the bacillus, and other tsetse flies are infected when they 

 suck the blood of the infected animal, but the wild animal 

 itself is not affected by the bacillus, which is so fatal to man 

 and domestic animals. But it was not expected at the Con- 

 ference that this method would be successful. I do not think 

 that this African disease has any connection with that of a 

 somewhat similar name, which has been given a very undue 

 prominence lately in the newspapers. It is satisfactory to hear 

 that a beetle, Anomala orientalis, the larva of which lives in 

 the roots of the sugar cane and had been doing immense 

 damage in Hawaii, has been nearly exterminated by a small 

 wasp, Scolia manilce, introduced from the Philippines, which 

 lays its egg on the beetle grub, which is devoured by the wasp 

 larva when it hatches. Some interesting observations on our 

 English wasps shew that a very large number of queens are 

 produced. From a strong nest no less than 1,118 were counted 

 as well as 995 drones, whilst the workers bred during the 

 season were estimated at 40,000. Each of these queens is 

 capable of producing a new nest the next year, but hardly any 

 are successful. The number of eggs laid by most insects is 



