628 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



Leaving Singapore on the 9tli of November, we arrived at Nega- 

 patam on tlie 16th, and from there I proceeded by rail to Bangalore,, 

 in Mysore State, a locality highly recommended by Compere. I may 

 say that the idea of going to Pusa had to be abandoned on account of 

 the low temperatures prevailing there during the winter months. I 

 found Bangalore suited to my purposes, although it is not, as I had 

 expected it to be, in a rich agricultural or fruit-growittg-seetion ; it is 

 one of the hill stations of India, in normal times with a garrison of more 

 than 10,000 troops, and on account of its fine climate, has attracted 

 many Indian pensioners. It was natural, therefore, to find on the out- 

 skirts of the city extensive garden's, and my first examination of these 

 revealed the melon-fly. I utilized a small room in the hotel as a labora- 

 tory, and was soon rearing hundreds of flies. Before I had a chance 

 to breed the parasites brought from Java, the same species appeared 

 in Indian material, and in a very short time I had a flourishing colony. 

 I spent five weeks or more in India, rearing about 10,000 flies. Out 

 of these Ojn^s fietclieri came abundantly, and I was also able to culti- 

 vate a small lot of Spalangia ; but nothing further appeared, and after 

 my own extensive work and the assurance of Mr. Fletcher, the Imperial 

 Entomologist, that nothing else had ever been bred by them from D. 

 cucurhitae, I decided I had exhausted this field and it was time to move 

 on to the Philippines. All the while in India I was looking closely for 

 Syntomosjihyrmn indicum, the fruit-fly parasite introduced by Com- 

 pere into Australia, by Lounsbury into the Cape, and by Silvestri 

 into Italy, but I saw nothing of it, and the Indian Entomologist could 

 give me no information about it beyond what I already knew. 



Leaving Bangalore on the night of 23rd December for Colombo, I 

 was detained by the Indian police at Dhanushkodi for three days en route, 

 but arrived in ample time to catch the Spanish mail (31st December) 

 and after an uneventful voyage of 18 days reached Manila with about 

 75 livins; examples of the Indian parasite, Oj^rws fletcJieri, which I had 

 carried with me on leaving India. While stopping in Singapore I had 

 also secured infested fruit to breed the parasites en ronte, and from this 

 material I subsequently got 64 additional individuals. 



• In Manila I received very generous assistance from the Bureau of 

 Agriculture and Science, and established a laboratory in a room set aside 

 for me at the latter institution. I found fruit very scarce and prac- 

 tically no cultivated cucurbits. Under the circumstances, I was obliged 

 to depend entirely for rearing and breeding purposes on Momordicas. 

 These fruits are dry and do not give the same trouble with regard 

 to mould that cucumbers do ; at the same time they contain ver}r 

 few maggots, and are got only with great exertion and loss of time. 



