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PKOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



hoeings, the tea gardens are cleared of Melolonthid grubs. I should like 

 to know how far that is true. 



Andrews. Ordinarily tea is not very badly attacked but, when forest areas are 



cleared and new bushes of tea are planted, these grubs come up and the 

 beetles that emerge from them eventually attack the bushes. 



Fletcher. Do they feed on the tea-bushes ? 



Andrews. The adult beetles riddle the leaves during the first two or three 



years, but later on no serious damage is done as all the grubs in the soil 

 are killed oS by the frequent hoeings that are given. 



Fletcher. In the case of fruit gardens in Shillong, the areas around the trees 



are constantly hoed and Melolonthid grubs are collected in very large 

 numbers, and the beetles also are collected by hand from the leaves of 

 the fruit-trees in the evening, but constant collecting of the grubs and 

 beetles seems to exercise little permanent eSect on the numbers of the 

 insects, which undoubtedly breed and come in from surrounding areas, 

 so I am rather doubtful whether constant hoeing by itself would have 

 such a permanent effect as is described. 



Andrews. In the case of fruit gardens, the conditions are perhaps rather different, 



as the fruit and flowers are disturbing factors. 



Fletcher. It is, therefore, another case in which a thorough knowledge of the 



crop is essential. 

 Quite so. 



You have said nothing about the control of insect pests by means of 

 their parasites. We in Ceylon have, for instance, a parasite on the Tea 

 Tortricid [Homona coffearia, Nietn.] which keeps it down. 



We have a parasite on the Tea Looper [Biston suppressaria] which 

 was bred in cages and liberated in enormous numbers, but it did not 

 keep the pest under control. Similarly there is a parasite of the Tea 

 Mosquito [Helopeltis tkeivora] but this parasite is already existing all 

 over the Tea Districts, so there is no question of introducing it ; but 

 something appears to keep this parasite down, as only about one per 

 cent, of the bugs are found to be parasitized. Parasite distribution 

 requires skilled men to carry it out. 



Were you not able to find any hyperparasites that were keeping this 

 parasite down ? 



No ; but we have not studied the question seriously. In the case of 

 some Tea Insects the percentage of parasitization may be quite large. 

 In the case of Gelatine Grubs [Belippa sp.] for example, as many as 

 eighty per cent, of the larvae are found parasitized, 

 j^ jnglig_ With regard to collar-pruning, could this be done on a large scale ? 



