PHOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 1077 



destruction of the top-shoot borers of brinjal may diminish future 

 damage. The surface caterpillars among vegetable crops or in the 

 field may be picked ofE by children by turning over the surface of the 

 soil. Enough time and labour can almost always be spared by the 

 members of the cultivator's family for such measures. Many wonder 

 why he does not adopt -them. He does not adopt them because he 

 does not understand the reason of the thing. He cannot comprehend 

 how the destruction of the caterpillars feeding to-day will ensure safety 

 of the new crop or to the crop at a later stage. He does not understand 

 that insects like all other living creatures are born of parents and not 

 out of air or water and are endowed with a power of rapid development 

 and growth, and a fecundity not commonly met with among animals, 

 beatts or birds he ordinarily sees. When he will understand that ten 

 caterpillars feeding to-day have the power of giving rise to about five 

 thousand a month later, he will of his own accord and without any 

 advice from the entomologist, seek out the ten or even two and destroy 

 them. Therefore the best service the entomologist can at present 

 render to the cultivator is to acquaint him with the elements of insect 

 life. The attitude of apathy, indifference or resignation, at present so 

 common on his part, can be dispelled only by this knowledge, and his 

 co-operation secmred, without which the entomologist however much 

 backed he may be otherwise, cannot be successful in his work of checking 

 the pests. While it is true in many cases that no reforms can be safely 

 or widely introduced into the agricultural system without the willing 

 and intelligent co-operation of the farmer, which e^in only be expected 

 from him if his education has been directed in that line, it is hardly 

 so in entomology. Even small children without education can see 

 and grasp the elementary things of insect life as they do of cattle. Only 

 the things have to be pointed out to them. In this respect the ento- 

 mologist is much more favourably situated than the mycologist or the 

 bacteriologist and need not requisition the services of a microscope. 



Insects have a charm both for the young and the old. It will not 

 be easy to approach the old people, at once, but they can be approached 

 through the children. As an instance of how children can quickly 

 grasp the elements of insect life, the writer mentions here his experience 

 with a child about eight years old. This child otie day found a golden- 

 coloured glistening chrysalis of the common butterfly Enplcea core, 

 hanging on a leaf of oleander. She was asked to keep it in a tumbler 

 and she saw how the butterfly emerged from it. She was further asked 

 to search the oleander bush and she found eggs and caterpillars of the 

 same butterfly. She saw the caterpillars hatching from the eggs and 

 was made to feed and rear them in a tumbler. She saw the connection 



