0. diUcjui was seen in abundance yet not a single 

 specimen of Coccus indicus was seen. In regard 

 to 0. monacantha, only a few isolated plants were 

 noticed in the areas traversed, these occurnng 

 at Vallalai, near Kankesanturai, and near Jon- 

 damanar, where they were growing under circum- 

 stances which suggested that they were sur- 

 vivals." None of these coccids were seen nor 

 were local residents able to find any after search- 

 ing for them. 



Evidence obtained from the oldest residents 

 in the district showed that the plant had been 

 more plentiful, and that the insects introduced 

 by Mr. Dyke had caused its destruction. This 

 coccid they named Tambalam pouchee,_ the 

 term proper to a related red-dye-yielding insect 

 occurring about the roots of grasses at Jaffna 

 and elsewhere. 



A visit to Sir William Twynam, at Jaffna, 

 served to elicit a statement of facts corroborative 

 of what has been already recorded regarding the 

 work of the Wild Cochineal Insect in the 

 Northern Province under the Government Agent, 

 Mr. Dyke. He also referred to its being liberated 

 by him at Valviddaturi, which is adjacent to the 

 place where 0. monacantha was found by us still 

 growing, though almost extinct. 



Although this inquiry in the Northern Pro- 

 vince failed to bring to light a single dying 

 Prickly-pear plant, or an insect capable of 

 destroying it, yet from the evidence available 

 we may conclude :— That formerly Opuntia 

 monacantha was a prevalent plant in the district ; 

 that it had gradually disappeared through the 

 attacks of the parasite named ; and that another 

 species common in Southern India — i.e., 0. 

 dillenii, Haw.— has supplanted it there, and 

 is itself not now victimised by any natural 

 enemy. Sir Wm. Twynam, indeed, stated that, 

 owing to the recent aggressiveness of this weed 

 in the division named, he had represented to the 

 Government at Colombo the desirability of taking 

 measures to exterminate it. 



It might be added that, many years sub- 

 sequent to P. A. Dyke's successful employment 

 of the Wild Cochineal Insect in the subjugation 

 of Prickly-pear plants in the Northern Province, 

 an undue development of Opuntias there 

 suggested resort to the same remedy again. Thus, 

 in November, 1902, the Assistant Government 

 Agent of the Hambantota district of the Southern 

 Province, in reporting on a special question sub- 

 mitted by the Colonial Secretary, stated that this 

 insect appeared to have been especially preva- 

 lent in the Hambantota district that year, and 

 undoubtedly killed the Prickly-pear. Moreover, 

 he despatched a quantity of plants affected with 

 the cochineal insect to his colleague at Jaffna, 

 for use in that division of the colony of which it 

 is the metropolis. 



With regard to this consignment, the 

 Northern Province Government Agent, writing 

 in November, 1903 — i.e., after a lapse of some 

 months — reported that the specimens previously 

 sent when tried on some Prickly-pear bushes 

 had proved a failure. Accordingly, a further 

 supply of Opuntia affected by coccids was sent 

 him, but the result seems to have been similar 

 to the first; for in July 1904, J. R. Lewis, 

 Government Agent, writing from Jaffna, 

 requisitioned for still another consignment. This 



third supply was forwarded to Kankesanturai 

 at the extreme north of Ceylon, in August of 

 the same year. These insects appear to have 

 been all derived from Kahawatti, near TangaUa. 



When visiting Kankesanturai and other parts 

 of the Northern Province in the course ot this 

 inquiry, we could neither find, nor hear of 

 there being found, in the locality a single Imng 

 cochineal insect, much less learn of any destruc- 

 tion of Prickly-pear that may have resulted trom 

 their introduction. 



The unsatisfactory outcome of all "these 

 attempts to reinstate the Opuntia-destroying in- 

 sect in the North, appears to be fully accounted 

 for bv the fact that the Prickly-pear that had 

 now become prevalent in the district was Opuiiha 

 dillenii^a distinct kind from that previously 

 occurring there as a pest (0. monacantM) 

 and, therefore, one distinct from the host-plant 

 of Coccus indicus.* 



Although this investigation yielded negative 

 results so far as its main purpose was concerned, 

 it served to indicate how complete might be the 

 destruction of a particular kind of Prickly-pear 

 when once it was confronted with a natural 

 enemy so prolific and virulent as is the Wild 

 Cochineal Insect (Coccus indicus, Green) when 

 living under conditions favourable to its 

 existence. It is, therefore, reasonable to expect 

 a similar result should this association between 

 it and its proper host, which is one of the 

 Queensland pest species, be brought about, even 

 in another country. 



Southern Ceylon. 



Matara was first made a centre for investiga- 

 tion in the Southern Province. The train jour- 

 ney from Colombo along the south-western shores 

 of the island revealed the presence of Prickly-pear 

 (0. monacantha), growing either as hedges or as 

 scattered plants, at or near Colombo, Mt. 

 Lavinia, Angulana, Moratuwa, and other villages 

 as far south as Induruwa. A little was found 

 at Weligama. 



At Matara, the terminus of the South Coast 

 Railway, there were found a few plants belong- 

 ing to the same species, a fair proportion of 

 which was parasitised by the Wild Cochineal 

 Insect. These occurred in great numbers on 

 some of the specimens. In every case the 

 presence of the insect had caused disease, the 

 result of heavy infection being the death of the 

 hostplant, which either rotted through de- 

 composition setting in or else dried up into a 

 hard mass. The first indication of disease could 

 be recognised by the presence of bleaching or 

 chlorosis at the spot where the insect had applied 

 itself. This yellow area increased in size, and, 

 where a joint harboured many coccids, the 

 entire surface became yellow, death supervening. 

 No other disease-producing agencies were 

 detected. Evidence was forthcoming that 0. 

 n),onacantha, which, as far as our . observation 

 has indicated, is the only pest species present in 

 the Southern Province, was formerly much more 

 abundant, but that some white disease {i.e., Wild 

 Cochineal) had appeared on it and had killed it. 



* The Commission is indebted to the Archives of the 

 Hambantota Kachcheri, to which it was courteously 

 permitted access by the Assistant Government Agent, 

 Mr. T. A. Carey, for a knowledge of the repeated trans- 

 mission of the Wild Cochineal from that district to the 

 Northern Province. 



