PHOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 1053 



"What other inf5ects may have been introduced and may turn up 

 as pests we do not know, but it is to be hoped that there will be none 

 in this category. 



As showing the frequency and ease with which pests may have been 

 introduced into India with plants, I can quote a few cases which have 

 come under my personal notice : — 



(1) A parcel of sugarcane setts received from Antigua was found 



to contain two living larvae and a cocoon of Sfhenofhorus 

 scKchari, a weevil which is well-known as destructive to 

 cane in the West Indies and Guiana. 



(2) Another parcel of sugarcane setts received from Java contained 



a living example of a beetle which was apparently Holaniara 

 picescens, described by Van Dev enter as a cane-pest in 

 Java. 



(3) Apple-trees imported from England and guaranteed free from 



Eriosoma lanigem by the exporters were found on arrival 

 to be badly affected with this Aphid. 



(4) Young coconut trees imported from Ceylon were badly affected 



with an Aphid not otherwise known from India and almost 



certainly imported with the plants (see South Indian Insects, 



pp. 506-507). 



These are only a few cases, but you will realize that they are cases 



which only came under notice more or less accidentally and that they 



formed a very small proportion of the total imports. It is impossible 



to imagine what insects may not have been brought into India in the 



past on the innumerable parcels of crop- and garden-plants imported 



by Government Departments and private individuals. 



This danger was percei-««d many years ago and the first action taken 

 was in 1906 when, o-\ving to the special danger of importation of the 

 Mexican Cotton-boll Weevil, orders were issued by Government direct- 

 ing that all cotton-seed imported from the New World should only be 

 admitted into India after fumigation with carbon bisulphide at the 

 port of entry, and this regulation was in force until superseded by later 

 legislation. The regulation, however, was not very effectively carried 

 out, as at least one case came to my notice in which an Agricultural 

 Officer imported cotton-seed from America through the post without 

 its being fumigated. 



Further action as regards plant imports other than cotton-seed was 

 initiated in December 1906 by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, 

 which addressed to the Bombay Government a letter pointing out the 



