322 INSECTS AND MAN 



tioned that fungus spores serve the same purpose as seeds 

 in the flowering plants, i.e. from them, by a round-about 

 process, new plants arise, though they are not analogous to 

 seeds. When large plantations were to be treated the 

 spores were spread broadcast with a dusting machine, many 

 of them of course fell to the ground and died, others 

 reached their favoured insect host and germinated, with 

 disastrous results to the host. On small estates the method 

 adopted was more interesting. In these cases a number of 

 native boys, each provided with a tube laden with fungus 

 spores, were sent into the cane-fields ; there they caught by 

 hand as many " frog hoppers " as they were able and 

 inserted them at one side of the tube. As the insects 

 emerged at the other end they were allowed to escape, but 

 each one was doomed to a fatal fungus attack and was, too, 

 a source of infection to its relatives. In this case fungus 

 control has proved eminently satisfactory. 



Artificial cultures of another fungus, Sporatrichum 

 globuliferum, have also been used successfully in the 

 control of another injurious bug, Pentatoma ornatum. 

 The same method of control has been used, with strangely 

 varying success, against those almost cosmopolitan pests, 

 the locusts. In the Argentine a scientist, F. d'Herelle, 

 used a bacterial preparation, which he called Coccobacillus 

 acridiorum, with the greatest success against these insects ; 

 but a similar preparation similarly used in South Africa 

 proved a failure. Time will probably reveal many new 

 and successful methods of this newest form of natural 

 insect control. 



