'Ai PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



ously desire a cure for tlie tea mosquito. I cannot therefore give much 

 time to the investigation of the Ufe-histories of the various pests of tea, 

 but must confine my energies to the search for a cure for one particular 

 pest, and, as you all know, though there are difficulties in the investi- 

 gation of insect life-histories, the search for a cure presents greater diffi- 

 culties still. I believe that I have had opportunities which many of you 

 have not had of going into the question of insect control from a parti- 

 cular point of view, and I think it would be of interest to the meeting 

 for me to give some of my experiences in this matter, and to give you 

 an idea both of methods which I have found to be of value and of those 

 that I have found to be of no value, under the conditions prevailing in 

 tea, and I think that if other gentlemen would give an account of their 

 experiences when working on the question of insect control it might 

 lead to an exceedingly helpful discussion. Now the first point I want 

 to emphasize with regard to insect control is this, that you must know 

 your insect — and you must know it inside out. It is not enough to 

 know its species ; it is not enough to be able to recognize the various 

 stages ; you must know everything about it. It pays in my opinion to 

 sit down amongst the bushes and watch every peculiarity of its behaviour, 

 no matter how trivial it seems at the time, for the more you know of the 

 insect's peculiarities the more likely are you to be successful in finding a 

 remedy. Until we possess an intimate acquaintance with every phase of 

 the economy of an insect we cannot hope to get very much further in the 

 control of that insect and I think Mr. Fletcher is quite right when he 

 says that we must get all the information we can about these insects 

 before we can hope to devise adequate means of control. Another point 

 I wish to emphasize is that if you are going to deal with an insect pest 

 of any particular crop you must know all about the crop too. The 

 methods of propagation, cultivation, and so on must be at your fingers' 

 ends. You must be thoroughly conversant with the factors affecting 

 the growth of the plant and of their respective effects before you can 

 expect to form an accurate opinion with regard to the factors governing 

 the attack by the insect. These are the two points which, in my opinion, 

 should be borne in mind by all engaged in the investigation of problems 

 in insect control. Before going further I may say that the title of this 

 paper is rather misleading. I do not intend to go fully into the principles 

 of insect control as they apply to all insect pests. That is a very broad 

 subject with which I am not qualified to deal because my sphere has 

 been limited to the investigation of the pests of a single plant. You will 

 find adequate discussions of the subject in Mr. Fletcher's book on South 

 Indian Insects and in other publications. I propose to discuss some of 

 the work that I have been doing and to give you some of my experiences 



