PHOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 1079 



apparent at once and preventive measures do not appeal to the people 

 as, to quote one example, they do not see the connection between the 

 hibernating caterpillars in juar stalks and the brood of the same insect 

 in the crop of the next spring. In some cases the entomologist cannot 

 do more than recommend the methods which the cultivators themselves 

 follow. Frequently again for want of facilities for local investigation 

 the advice given through correspondence has no reference to actual 

 conditions and therefore turns out to be impracticable. All these 

 difficulties in the way of the entomologist are not apparent to the ordi- 

 nary people. In some quarters therefore there is a tendency to belittle • 

 the importance of the entomologist in the economy of the Agricultural 

 Department. This is hardly justifiable as the entomologist is judged 

 before he is given facilities for equipping himself for the work he is 

 expected to be able to do. 



In Agricultural Economic Entomology in India there are two distinct 

 lines on which progress is urgently needed, first investigational and the 

 second educational. We have to push on vigorously the investigational 

 part which can be carried on without the co-operation of the people. 

 The investigation of a pest must be carried on in its natural environ- 

 ment in the locality where it occurs, in order to enable the investigator 

 to see it in its real perspective. The mango fruit weevil {Cryptorrhyn- 

 chiis gravis) or the Rice Hispa which occur and cause extensive damage 

 in Eastern Bengal and Assam cannot be investigated with imported 

 individuals at Pusa, where they do not occur or occur only as curiosities. 

 It will be years before the investigational part can make much progress 

 even if we proceed at a much faster rate than we are doing at present. 

 But in the educational part we can have very good residts in the course ' 

 of a, short time, if only we can utilize the agency indicated above. If 

 with the co-operation of the Educational Department Nature Study 

 with insects be made a compidsory subject in primary schools, the 

 knowledge of insect life will spread quickly. Through the boys attending 

 the pathshalas it will spread into their families and those of their neigh- 

 bours. If a proper beginning on these or similar lines be made, progress 

 is expected to be very rapid and this wUl help the Economic Entomolo- 

 gist immensely in his work of checking the ravages of insects. 



Mr. Ghosh's paper contains many facts which are obviously true. Mr. Fletcher. 

 We require, in the first place, very detailed work on the natural history 

 (in its widest sense) of the innumerable insect pests which cause in the 

 aggregate money losses amounting to hundreds of millions of rupees 

 every year in India alone. For that we require a very large increase 

 of staff, and, in my opinion, such an investigational staff should be 



