280 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



ships of this insect to the development 

 of seed on the tree and the beautifully 

 adapted habits of the insect to the 

 special structure of this fig were found 

 identical with those determined for the 

 More ton Bay Fig. 



The insects in neither case are new 

 to science. Mr. W. W. Frogatt has 

 collected Pleistodontes froggaffi and 

 Pleistodontes hnperialis from the More- 

 ton Bay and Port Jackson Figs res- 

 pectively, and was the first to publish 

 interesting data respecting them. This 

 ajDpeared in The Agricultural Gazette of 

 Neiv South Wales for June, 1900, and in 

 his Austtalian Insects. The complete 

 details of the writer's work have been 

 published in the Haivaiian Planter's 

 Record for June, 1921. 



With the above facts in hand one 

 could be certain that an introduction 

 of these living insects to the Hawaiian 

 Islands was essential before the few 

 trees already in the Islands would be 

 made to produce good seed. This was 

 done. Shipments of live insects from 

 tlie Moreton Bay Fig were successfully 

 made from Sydney in September, 1921, 

 and January, 1922. Both became well 

 estaWished in the trees in Honolulu on 

 wliich they were liberated and have 

 continued living through many gener- 

 ations of their cycle, actively ojDcrating 



A Moreton Bay Fig, Ficus macrophyUa, 



growing in front of Kirribilli House, 



Sydney. This tree is over a 



century old. 



[I'liot". — A. Miisgrai'i'. 



An avenue of Moreton Bay Fig trees grow- 

 ing in the Sydney Domain. 



[Photo. — ,1. Miisyrare. 



in those trees and inducing the develop- 

 ment of hundreds of pounds of fertile 

 seed right up to the present writing 

 (January, 1923). Hundreds of thous- 

 ands of young seedling trees have been 

 since secured through the plantingof this 

 seed, and it has been made possible only 

 through the introduction of these par- 

 ticular insects. Up to the present at 

 least a million of these young trees 

 have been set out in the Hawaiian 

 forests to serve the desired purpose of 

 aiding in the future conservation of 

 rainfall, increased humidity, cloudiness, 

 fogs and rain. This propagation of 

 seedlings and planting is going on to- 

 day and will continue. 



These trees are hardy, have vast soil- 

 gripping, soil-holding root-systems, are 

 not timber trees and hence not likely 

 to fall under the ruthless axe, aie semi- 

 tropic and exceedingly prolific, which 

 makes them in general ideally fitted for 

 reafforestation in large, jDartially de- 

 nuded forest-reserves, much in need of 

 a new blanket of green, deejjly -shaded 

 growth. The day should come when 

 Australia can be looked to as a country 

 which has given us one of the most 

 important elements of our necessary 

 forests . 



