37 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries publishes a number of leaflets on 

 agricultural matters, which are sent post free to all who ask for them. 



On the llth March, having concluded my work in the museum. I left for 

 Paris, arriving there the same evening. I engaged an interpreter and guide, 

 and presented my credentials to Professor P. Mairhal, Entomologist to the 

 Department of Agriculture, who placed himsolf at my disposal all the time I 

 was in Paris. He has very good working laboratories, and a fine collection 

 of economic specimens of the pests of France. Dacus olece is common in the 

 south of France, and about the district round Marseilles it often does a great 

 amount of damage to the olive crop. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Geratitia 

 hispauica), as it is called all over Europe, though identical with our introduced 

 species, has been found on several occasions in the orchards close to Paris ; 

 but Professor Marchal informed me that they die out every winter, so that 

 it is from further importations of infested fruit that the fresh broods appear. 

 He has done some interesting work on Polymorphism, a most interesting fact 

 in the development of a number of distinct eggs from the single ovum deposited 

 in the body of a caterpillar by micro -hymenoptera that are parasitic upon them. 

 He has illustrated the development of a species of Encrytus, showing how, 

 through a series of fissions, a single egg, after being deposited in the cater- 

 pillar's body, finally separates into 100 eggs, from which emerge larval wasps, 

 each spinning a separate cocoon, and producing a tiny parasitic wasp. This 

 is a phase in the life of internal parasites that has been only quite recently 

 understood. Professor Marchal has a number of fine coccids from all parts 

 of the world, among them some very large species of the greasy wax scales 

 (Ceroplastes) from Africa. 



The other branches of the Department of Agriculture are in the same 

 building, where there is a display of botanical specimens, chemical labora- 

 tories, and a collection of agricultural implements. There is, too, an advanced 

 Agricultural College, where Professor Marchal delivers thirty lectures during 

 the term. 



From here I visiteJ the Jar-din de Plantes, going through the splendid 

 galleries of the different floors of the Natural History Museum, where, in 

 the entomological section, the nests of termites, wasps, and other insects are 

 beautifully arranged. 



In the lahoratt tries I met Dr. Bouvier, who placed an assistant at my 

 disposal, and, with him, went through the remains of the Meigen Collection 

 of Diptera. Part of this collection was destroyed by fire, and another portion 

 is in the Vienna Museum. There were no named specimens of fruit-flies 

 among the Trypetirt" . Among other flies, I su\v the difference between two 

 species of leaf-mining flies, one of which is such a garden pest in Australia. 

 I'/ii/tninf/zitf affini* has tlu 1 tarsi white, while the second species f/*. nigripesj, 

 said to be our common species, is somewhat larger, and has black tarsi. 

 There are twelve described species of the genus Lonclura, an interesting group, 

 for some of them are supposed to damage ripe fruit. After examining their 

 collection of Cocculm (scale insects), 1 went on to the Pasteur Institute, 

 where I found the officer in charge of the biting flies, and other insects that 

 cause fevers, sleeping sickness, and other tropical disea 



The evening was spent at the rooms of the Societe Entomologique de 

 France, of which I have the honour to be a member, and where I attended 

 the monthly meeting. I met the President, Abbe Joseph de Joannes, and 

 gave the members a sli<rt address on enotniological work in Australia. 



