36 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. Ill- 



attacked them with avidity. Th^se beetles seem to be bred out of the faeces ?f the 

 cattle, from which nest they appear in great numbers after the dropping is a day or 

 two old. The large numbers of transport animals which have recently passed through 

 the district to the Miranzai Expedition have caused the origin of large quantities of 

 these beetles, and they were the locusts' most determined foe." 



The figure shows the beetle natural size. 



In the Comptes Rendu s des Seances de la Sociefe de Biologie, Paris, 



... ... aBo 9th January 1S92, Mons. A. Giard gives 



Fungoid locust disease. « 



some account of a fungoid parasite Lachnidium 

 acridiorum, which has been found attacking the locust Acridium [Schis- 

 tocerca) peregrinum Oliv. in Algeria. Mons. Giard writes that this fungus 

 does so little harm to the locusts that it is quite useless to expect any 

 practical result from attempts to spread the disease by artificial means. 

 This conclusion is of interest in view of the suggestions that have been 

 made on the subject of disseminating disease by artificial methods 

 amongst the hordes of the same locust in India. 



A suggestion has been made that it might be worth wliile to attempt 



Tread locust parasites for India. the induction into India of a beetle said 



to have been discovered by Sir John Lubbock 

 in the Troad, when it was supposed to have been very effectual in 

 keeping down locusts by destroying their eggs. 



The insect referred to is no doubt the parasite exhibited by Sir John 

 Lubbock at a meeting of the Entomological Society of London held on 

 3rd November 1880. This parasite was at first supposed to be the larva 

 of a Cantharid beetle, but afterwards proved (see Proc. Jint. Soc. 

 London, 1881. page xv) to be the larva of a two-winged fly, which seems 

 to have very similar habits to those of the Anthomyia joeshwarensis Bigot, 

 noticed on page. 34. Anthomyia peskwaren&is already exists in vast 

 numbers in Inaia, so the place proposed to be filled by the introduction 

 of the Troad species is already at least partly occupied; besides this, 

 however, if the Troad species were able to attack the Indiau locust 

 [Acridium peregrinum), it would, in all likelihood, have already found 

 its way to India, for there is no geographical obstacle of -suliicieut 

 magnitude to prevent the spreading of such an insect as the Troad locust 

 fly from the Troad to the Punjab The locust, indeed, for whose de- 

 struction it lias been proposed to introduce the parasite, already ranges 

 over most of the intervening countries, and thus offers every facility for 

 the purpose. 



