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been: successful in acclimatising them among the orchards of 
W.A., where some have done good service, of which there is 
incontestable evidence in the almost complete destruction of the 
cabbage aphis in some gardens; in the twigs and boughs of 
shrubs infected with scale pests of various sorts, every one of 
which was dead—with a hole at the apex of each, where the 
little friend and ally of the fruit grower had applied her 
ovipositor and laid an egg which, hatching into a grub of 
minute size, had feasted upon the mother scale and her brood 
of sheltered young, so clearing the plant of its sap-sucking, 
irritating enemies. re i EY ete caine cate! 
Fruit flies have, in all our States, developed marvellously in 
recent years, and are now the bane and terror of every man 
who owns a fruit tree. Peaches, apricots, nectarines, and other 
luscious fruits—even the hard, solid quince and the apparently 
armour-clad orange and lemon are now the spoil of one or 
other of the varieties of Fruit Fly. 
Mr. Compere first undertook the task of searching for a 
parasite in 1902, and succeeded in locating one species in India 
in 1903. Later on several species were found in Brazil, but 
difficulty after difficulty beset the endeavour to keep the insects 
alive in their necessarily long voyages and travels, and in 
bridging over the period that exists between the temperature 
and seasons in India and Brazil and Australia. Too often the 
little flies were fated to hatch out and die because no proper 
food could be found at that time of the year, _ ; 
- However, a few failures and disappointments did not deter 
from further effort, and eventually all difficulties were overcome, 
Having during February of this year many days of ‘leisure, 
while spending a month in Perth, the ‘writer several’ times 
wended his way to the Entomological portion of the Department 
of Agriculture, and there by the courtesy of the Officers 
associated with Mr. Compere (who is now away on a collecting » 
trip), he was able to watch and study the developments and 
life history of some of the genera that are now proving their 
power to check and limit the pernicious forms of insect life. 
_ In December, 1907, Ma. Compere landed in W.A. with a large 
stock of pups of Fruit Fly, all heavily parasitized. Soon the 
tiny Ichneumons began to appear, and though early in the 
season, some fruits were collected containing maggots of the 
Fruit Fly, which being placed in the cases or cages: with the 
parasites, these at once commenced. their attack upon them 
