August 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
91 
3. The principle of dealing with scale buga by 
introducing their appropriate enemy has been worked 
out by American entomologists and is undoubtedly 
sound. But as pointed out in the papers there are 
1,700 known kinds of lady birds and for the most 
part each of these will only feed on one kind of 
scale insect. The method therefore will obviously 
not work unless the appropriate enemy is set to 
work on its destined prey. 
4. As it appeared to me doubtful if this point had 
been adequately considered by the Government of 
Madras, I obtained the opinion of Mr. W. F. H. 
Blanford, one of the Secretaries of the Entomological 
Society. This I enclose. 
5. I may be permitted to observe that it appears 
to me improbable that any attempt to utilise these 
refined entomological expedients will lead to anything 
except waste of money and perhaps as Mr. Blandford 
points out worse mischief unless carried out by a 
competent expert. 
letter from 3ir. w. f. h. blanford, to the 
director op the royal oarde.vs, kew. dated 
15th march, 1898. 
With respect to the support which the Government 
of Madras is giving to the United Planters' Associa- 
tion of Southern India, in order to send Mr. Newport 
to Australia, for the collection of ladybirds it is clear 
that the Government and the planters are relying 
on the success of the Hawaiian and American experi- 
ments in the same direction. 
I have looked up as much information as I can 
find of what has been done in this direction, and it 
appears that certain Australian ladybirds (of the 
genera Chilocorus, Orcus and Cryptolaemus) have 
been found to attack and feed on species of Leca- 
nium Insect Life, IV., 164165. 
Although the official papers are silent on the point, 
it may be inferred that the destructive coffee-scale of 
Southern India is Lccanium viride first described by Mr. 
Green from Ceylon. It is therefore quite within the 
bounds of possibility that Mr. Newport may provide 
a return for the R5,000, by bringing back lady-birds 
that really will be useful in India. 
At the same time, though not ueceasarily foredoomed 
to fiilure the experiment is being carried out on 
quite unscientific lines. 
No study appears to have been made of the Indian 
parasites of Lecanium viride. Whatever the native 
home of this scale may be, it is presumably not Aus- 
tralian, as was loerya purcha'ii; there are plenty of 
Indian Lady-birds, which perhaps already accomplish 
all the destruction that imported kinds could do. 
The success of the " Vedalia experiment " has given 
rise to a sort of delusion that one must inevitably turn 
to Australia for coccidiphagous insects ; and it is worth 
pointing out that Iceri/a agetjptiaatin, Dongl, which 
has been introduced into India, was found in 1894 to be 
attacked in the compound of the Indian museum, 
Calcutta, by an indigenous species of Vedalia V. fimida 
roseipennis. In this case the introduction of the 
Australian V. cavdinalis would have been utterly un- 
necessary. 
In considering the chance of success of such experi- 
ments it is well not to lose sight of considerations thus 
expressed by Eiley in a paper which lays down 
authoritatively the principles of such economic 
methoiis (Insect Life, 130 et seg.) Thare is very 
little to h i hoped irum the miscellaneous introduction 
of prodactous or paritsitic insects for the suppression 
of a phytophage which they do not suppress in their 
native home or in the country from whicli they 
are Drought. All other thiugs being equal, we 
should expect the species beneficial in Australia 
to be less so when brought to this country (America) 
a deduction which brings out still more clearly the 
exceptional nature of the case of Vedalia and icerya." 
Whatever good result the present experiment may 
have, must depend on Mr. Newport's capacity for 
carrying it out, and as the Planters' Association has 
vainly asked for the services of a skilled Entomologist, 
he must be presumed not to be one. 
To study and collect suitable predaceous species 
from among th« various Australiaa CoccimelUtl^'e 
appears to me to be no easy task even for an exnert 
and to be probably beyond the powers of a non-' 
entomologist. 
^;ffi^.'^f'^'^''"°M .the species is only an initial 
difficulty ; possib y injurious forms must be eliminated 
a point on which Mr. Koeble, who introduced Icerya 
in o America, was specially cautioned. The examples 
collected must be brought back alive, aud sufficient 
inyestigations of their life history &c., made to enable 
this to be done. Moreover they must be fed duriug 
the voyage on Australian scale-insects, unless Mi- 
Newport exports with him a supply of shrubs in-' 
tested with Laecaivum Viride on which to test and 
subsequently to rear the lady-birds. In either case 
there is a risk that unskilled management ml -ht 
introduce an Australian scale into India, or vice-versa 
which would be a most lamentable outcome of an ill' 
considered experiment. 
Order thereon. Misc. No. 2,294 dated 26th May, 1898. 
Cvopies of the Correspondence received with the 
Kight Hon ble the Secretary of Slate's despatch read 
above will be communicated to the Unitea Planters- 
Association of Southern India. 
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO STOKED rADDV. 
CIRCULAR FROM MESSi-S. GREEN ATSX) WILLIS. 
Much alarm has recently been caused among paddy 
cultivators by the appearance in the granaries of large 
numbers of destructive insects, the most familiar of 
which IS the paddy weevil. Much damage has been 
done by these insects; t-.r/., we have found in one 
sample of gram from the Kurunegala District 35i per 
cent of empty grains, and in one from the Saluiti 
korale o per cent. The samples were probably tnken 
from the bottom of the bins, where the damage is 
greatest; but even when allowance is made for this 
the injury is still very serious, and if unchecked, the 
pest will affect the whole mass. Samples of both 
the " maha " and " yala " cropa from the same dis- 
trict have been examined : the latter which has been 
longer in store shows a much larger proportion of 
damaged grain. The insects are always found in 
greatest abundance at the bottom of the bins • the 
reason for this is possibly that the bins have not 
been carefully olejiued before the grain was put into 
them. In Amenca, where the grain weevil is also pre- 
valent, the injury is found to begin at the top. 
A careful examination was mA,de of a particular 
sample from Kurunegala with a view to ascertain the 
kinds of insects present and their relative numbers 
The result showed that 47 per cent or nearly half! 
consisted of small Hymenopterous parasites, belong- 
ing to the family Chalddido:. which had presumably 
been preying upon and destroying the insects actually 
injurious to the gram. The remaining portion consisted 
of small beetles of three distinct kinds, in the follow- 
ing proportions:— pej. ^g^t^ 
(1) Scohjtid beetles, species undetermiued 64 • 
(2) Rice weevils (Calandra ory-.n) .. 32 
(3) Tenehrio sp. _ _ 4 
Judging from the numbers represented, by far the 
greater portion of the damage seems to have been 
effected by the Scolutid beetles. This particular 
family of beetles usually attacks wood, but some few 
species are known to tunnel into hard seeds. There as 
so far boen no record of their attacking food grains. 
All stages of the insectsi, from the larva upwards, have 
been actually obtained inside grains of rice in the 
samples examined on this occasion. 
Nest in importance is tho common rice weevil, 
Calandra ort/xte, a well known enemy to stored grain. 
This insect is always present to a small extent, hut in 
the present season, owing to some unrecognized cause, 
there has been a very considerable increase in its 
numbers. 
The third kind of beetle, Tenehrio, occurs in such 
small numbers as to be practically unimportant. 
fn other samples of grain examined, and in grana- 
ries near Kandy, we have also found large numbers of 
a small Tanetd moth, the larve and pupoj of 
