The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-28
Searching for Parasites to Fight Fruit Pests
By H. A. Crafts.


press and stand any chance of its ar
irving at its point Of destination alive
and In good condition.
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 conse-
cutive tours Of the world, as l have
already stated,
There was one long and unsuccess-
full hunt in the Orient; then Compere
heard OF, the insect having been in
Washington, d. G. To that city he
went, and learned that the creature
had been sent to the. Smithsonian in
stitution in that city for identification
by DR.. H. Won Ibering, director of the
museum at Sac Paulo, Brazil, but had
been returned after identification. That
was a good enough clew for Compere,
SO he hurried down to Bahia, and in
that neighborhood found the object
OF his search, in the shape Of large
beetle.
There are two general classes of par
asites that are sought after to prey up
on the fruit pests-the internal and the
predaceous. The first is one that lays
it's eggs in the grub of the injurious
insect, and as the young hatch and de-
velop they feed upon the surrounding
tissue, and the pest is killed in en-
bryo. The predaceous parasite is one
that in it's mature form pounces up
on the pest insect in whatever form
the latter may be found an devours
it.
The Brazilian beetle discovered by
Compere belongs to this last described
class and the naturalist decided to
herd lot Of them together, confine
them and then personally conduct
them all the way to Perth, West Aus
tralia, via London and Marseilles. He
had constructed tin case containing
compartments and he divided his col
ony of beetles into sections, and put
section into each compartment Then
he secured passage on the first steam
cured on board a corner in which to
keep his insects, and then provided
for feeding them on grubs on the voy-
age. He secured an ice box, charged
with ice, and filled it with fresh meat;
then he caught lot of blow flies and
shut them up in a tin case by them
selves. Next he provided an open
case in which to place piece Of
meat for exposure to the blow flies,
and still another case in which to
place his maggots as fast as they de-
veloped 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, and Compere was
compelled to exert himself to secure
a sufficient amount of food, and he
was constantly filled with anxiety as
he observed that the bugs were regu-
lar cannibals, and just so soon as
grubs became short, 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 hum
CRY beetles. Happily he ran across a
firm in Gray's Inn which made a 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 discov-
cred that the very fruit fly which was
the natural food of the beetles was
prevalent in that region. Here he
secured sufficient food for his beetles
for the balance of the journey to West
Australia, where the insects were
landed alive and in good condition,
the journey from Bahia to Fremantle
having occupied a period of rs days.
But in West Australia a 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
the hope of keeping them alive until
the fruit season opened, but in this
lAC OAtOnOiOSlolS WCic ulSdppOlul6u,
and the next year Compere found it
necessary to make another trip to
Brazil after more beetles This expedi-
ton was properly timed, another col
ony of BEETLES was secured and sue
cessfully transported to West Aust
tralia, where the insect has since been
bred by the million and turned loose
upon the fruit fly.
The securing of the purple scale
parasite in China and it's transfer to
California were accompanied with al
most equal difficulties. This parasite,
unlike the fruit fly parasite, is a mi
mute wasp, so small as to be almost
invisible to the naked eye, and is one
of the internal species.
It was transferred in this fashion:
The California horticultural officers
at San Francisco secured from South
ern California number of small lem
on trees heavily infested with purple
scale. and these were ported, boxed
up, and dispatched to Compere in
L.