The Glenwood post., 1907-09-28

SeHuity ana inventive genus. on can
not pick up any kind of an insect and
put it in your pocket and carry it homo
some $4,000 miles, nor can you send it
by mail or express and stand any
chance of its arriving at its point If
destination alive and in good condition.
There is a difference il insects and tha
way of handling them.
Take Compere s experience with the
parasite for the fruit fly! The discov-
cry and final landing of this insect in
West Australia required three consecu-
tive tours of the world, as ] have al
ready stated.
There was one long and unsuccessful
hunt in the Orient; then Compere heard
of the insect having been in Washing
ton, d. c. To that city he went, and
learned that the creature he'd been sent
to the Smithsonian institution in that
city for Identification by DIR. II. Won
Iebring, director of the museum at Sac
Paulo, Brazil, but had been returned
after Identification. This was good
enough clew for Comperc, so ne hurried
down to Bahia, and in that neighbor-
hood found the object of his search, in
the shape of a large beetle.
There are two general classes of para
sites that are sought after to prey upon
the fruit trees-the internal and the
predaceous. The first is one that lays
its eggs in the grub of the injurious in
sect, and as the young hatch and de
velop the feed upon the surrounding
tissue and the pest is killed in embryo.
The predaceous parasite is one that
in its mature form pounces upon the
pest insect in whatever form the latter
may be found and devours it.
The Brazilian beetle discovered by
class and the naturalist decided to herd
a lot of them together, cOnfinc them and
then personally conduct them all the
way to Perth, West Australia, via Lon
don and Marseillcs. He had construct
ed tin case containing compartments
and he divided his colony of beetles
into sections and put section into
each compartment. Then he secured
passage on the first steamer out that
was going his way secured on board a
corner in which to keep his insects, and
on the voyage. He secured an ice box
charged with ice, and filled it with
fresh meat; then he caught lot of
blow flies and shut them un in a tin
case by themselves. Next he provided
an open case in which to place a piece
of meat for exposure to the blow flies,
and still another case in which to place
his maggots as fast as they developed
upon the meat.
The maggots were used as food for
the beetles. But the latter proved to
be hungry fellows, and they devoured
between one hundred and two hundred
maggots per day. Compcrc was com
PEELED to exert himself to secure "A suffi
cient amount of food, ana he was con
stantly filed with anxiety as he OBJ
served that the bugs were regular can
nibals, and just as soon as grubs bave
ont they turned upon one another.
He kept them alive, however, until
he reached London, and in that city,
hiring a cab, he secured the precincts
in search of suitable food for his hun
cry beetles. Happily he ran across
firm in Gray's Inn which made bust
ness of supplying fishermen with bait,
and of them he bought two gallons of
maggots.
These lasted until he reached Port
Said, and in that vicinity he discovered
that the very fruit fly which was the
natural food of the beetles was prevs
lent in that region. Here he secured
sufficient food for his beetles for the
balance of the journey to West Aus.
tralia, where the insects were landed
alive and in good condition, the journey
from Bahia to Fremantlc having occu-
pied period of forty-six days.
i'u' III NesI Nustralla new and un-
looked for difficulty was encountered.
1t was in the dormant period OF the
fruit fly that the beetles arrived, and
therefore there was no food for them
They were placed in cold storage in tho
hope of keeping them alive until the
fruit fly season opened, but in this the
entomologists were disappointed, and
the next year Compere found it neces
sary to make another trip to Brazil
after more beetles. This expedition was
properly timed, another colony of bee.
ties was secured and successfully trans.
ported to West Australia, where the in
sect has since been bred by the million
and turned loose upon the fruit fly.
Tho Snsnrinf, nf