36 Indian Muneum Notes. [ Vol, IIL 



attacked thorn with avidity. These beetles seem to be bred out of the fseces '^'£ tiie 

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

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

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

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



The fiffuie shows the beetle natural size. 



In the ComptesEendusdes Seances de la Societe de Bjologie, Paris, 



9th January lS9:i, Mons. A. Giard o-ives 

 Fungoid locust disease. .on ■ -, -jl t l -t 



some account or a rung-oid parasite Lachvidium 



acrtdiorum, which has been found attacking" the locust Acridinm {Schu- 



tocerca) peregrimim 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 bj artificial methodt* 



amongst the hordes of the same locust in India. 



A suo-gestion has been made that it might be worth while to attempt 



., „ , ,. the introduction into India of a beetle said 

 Tread locust parasites for India. -, , o- t i -r , , , 



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 th^ 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. Ent. 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 peslmarends Bigot, 

 noticed on page. 34. Anthomyia peshioarefisis 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 sufficient 

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

 fly from the 'I'road to the Punjab. The locust, indeed, for whose de- 

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

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

 the purpose. 



