86
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
wwwimmimC.O.885/25
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
20872
•
154
Annexure to No. 71.
Our
HALF-YEARLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR Of the Imperial BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. Finance-In my last report it was notified that the Government of New- foundland had signified their intention of discontinuing their annual contribution of £50 to the funds of this Bureau; as a result of representations made by the Colonial Office they have since agreed to make a nominal grant of £5 a year. income from Government grants now amounts, therefore, to £5,550; but in November last the Treasury informed the Secretary of State for the Colonies that the grant of £500 from Imperial funds would be renewed only for the current year, and then the matter would be reconsidered.
In the
The usual financial statements will be found at the end of this report. Balance Sheet (Appendix I.), with the exception of the items Carnegie Students, Petty Cash, and Crown Agents, the sums given show the net total expenditure and receipts under the various headings since September, 1909.
În Appendix II. the actual payments and receipts within the financial year are recorded; but, with regard to the publications, the sums shown bear no relation to the parts issued during that period. This is due to the fact that the Stationery Office accounts are received somewhat irregularly, and usually some nine to twelve months after the work has been completed. At the time of writing we have not The amount paid paid for any of the work done during the past thirteen months. for salaries is also lower than the normal, owing to the fact that Dr. J. J. Simpson was on half pay for several months of his sick leave, and also the portion of Dr. Lamborn's salary drawn by him in Nyasaland for the last five months has not yet been charged to us by the local Administration.
From the Cash Statement (Appendix III.) it will be seen that the estimated net balance in hand at the end of the year was about £1,400, after allowing a sum of £400 for our share of the cost of the Stegomyia survey in the Far East carried out by Dr. A. T. Stanton.
Finally, in Appendix IV., an estimate is submitted of the recurrent expenditure for the forthcoming year.
Work done for the War Office and Admiralty.—In November last, at the sug- gestion of Sir David Bruce, the Intelligence Officer for the East African Expedi- tionary Force asked the Bureau to supply information as to the tsetse flies likely to be met with in German East Africa. Thanks to the kind assistance of Dr. A. G. Bagshawe, a satisfactory amount of information was collected on the subject, and a report was prepared on the five species of Glossina occurring in that country, dealing with their distribution, habits, relation to disease, etc., and accompanied by a map showing the approximate range of each species. A more detailed map had been published in a German scientific periodical in August, 1915, but it was not then available in this country. A little later Dr. Roubaud, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, very kindly lent us a copy, whereupon a block was made from the map and prints were sent to the Intelligence Departments of the War Office and Admiralty. At the request of Sir David Bruce, some simple notes on African blood-sucking flies were prepared for incorporation in a pamphlet to be issued to the troops in East Africa.
The Intelligence Department of the Admiralty sought information as to insects likely to cause damage to aircraft, especially in hot climates. A general report was made on the subject, and has been printed in the series of confidential pamphlets issued for the use of naval officers by the Department, who have informed us that various members of the Naval Air Service have expressed their appreciation of the information supplied.
In view of the great importance of tsetse flies in connexion with the movement of troops in East Africa, the Colonial Office, with the approval of our Chairman, offered the services of Dr. W. A. Lamborn to the War Office. The offer was accepted, but only on the conditions that Dr. Lamborn was to be employed in a purely civil capacity, and that his salary and all other expenses should be paid by the Bureau. Early in January a cable was sent to him instructing him to leave Nyasaland and report himself to the military authorities in British East Africa by the middle of February. No news has been received from him since he left Nyasa- land.
Glossina Investigations.--The third and final portion of the report by Mr. W. F. Fiske* on the Glossina problem as it affects the islands and western shore of
* Enclosure 7 in No. 68.
155
Lake Victoria has now been received, and copies are being circulated among members of the Committee for their consideration. This report was only intended to be a preliminary statement of his general conclusions. Mr. Fiske has quite recently returned to this country on six months' leave, and is now preparing a much fuller account of his work, in which he will record the details of many of the experiments and observations upon which his conclusions are based.
As mentioned above, Dr. Lamborn had to bring his work in Nyasaland to a close in January, and his final reports will be published in the forthcoming part of the Bulletin of Entomological Research. Advance proofs have been sent out to the Committee, so as to give an opportunity for discussing the results at which he has arrived.
No news has been received from Dr. J. J. Simpson with regard to the progress of his work in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, beyond the statement that he has discovered breeding places of three different species of Glossina-pre- sumably G. tachinoides, G. morsitans, and G. longipalpis; but, although some numbers of pupe have been obtained, no parasites have been observed so far. appears to have been unfortunate in his selection of a locality for his investigations, as the district has suffered from alternations of excessive drought and wholesale flooding, which has evidently hampered his work.
He
Stegomyia Survey in the Far East, Dr. A. T. Stanton left the Federated Malay States on the 14th October, 1915, to carry out the first portion of this survey. He proceeded first to Bangkok, in Siam; thence to Saigon and Haiphong, in French Indo-China, and on to Canton and Hong Kong. As it was then mid-winter he found it was useless to attempt any investigation of the Japanese and more northern Chinese ports, so he returned to Kuala Lumpur, and then started out to examine the ports in the Netherland-Indies. There he has visited Batavia, Semarang, and Soerabaia, in Java; Makassar, in Celebes; and Laboauhadji, in Lombok. Thence he was going to Tilatjap, the only port on the south coast of Java, and then back to Kuala Lumpur, where he will prepare a report upon the places examined so far. With regard to China and Japan, Dr. Stanton some time ago pointed out that the cost of investigating the ports in those countries would be considerably diminished if, instead of going there this summer, his visit were postponed until the summer of 1917, when he would be travelling in that direction on his way home on leave. It was therefore decided to let the matter stand over till then.
Dr. Stanton states that he was received most sympathetically by the officials in all the countries visited, and everything was done to facilitate his work. He is satisfied that in various places he has been able to arouse considerable interest in the question of the control of Stegomyia, and anticipates receiving more information in the future than he could well obtain in his necessarily short visits.
In December the Director of the Geneeskundig Laboratorium, Batavia, at the request of the Dutch Government, kindly forwarded a collection of Stegomyia from various parts of the Dutch East Indies, together with a very useful map showing the distribution of the genus as at present known to him.
The Japanese Government have also recently made a move in the right direction, for an entomologist, Mr. Yamada, has been appointed for the special purpose of studying the mosquitoes of Japan. In January we received an admirably preserved collection of all the species found by him in the vicinity of Tokio, and he proposes gradually to work over every district.
Sugar-cane Froghopper in Trinidad. It will be recollected that a few years ago the estate owners of Trinidad sought the help of this Committee in securing the services of a competent entomologist to investigate the froghopper pest in that island. The Sub-Committee appointed to deal with the matter, under the chair- manship of Sir Daniel Morris, selected Mr. J. C. Kershaw, of Hawaii, for the purpose. At the end of a year Mr. Kershaw retired, after submitting a report containing various practical recommendations, including the artificial propagation of a local syrphid fly which he had found to be predaceous on the froghopper, and the suggestion that search should be made for a non-indigenous egg-parasite. assistant, Mr. P. L. Guppy, was then left to carry on the work in connexion with the syrphid fly. On the 30th November a meeting of the estate owners and your Sub-Committee was convened at the Colonial Office in order to receive Mr. Guppy's final report on his work, which the Trinidad Government intended to terminate at the end of 1915. Mr. Guppy showed how he had solved the difficulty of carrying the syrphid fly over the dry season so that colonies of larvæ could be placed on the spring broods of the froghopper, with quite encouraging results. The meeting was, how- ever, unanimously of opinion that this was in the nature of a palliative rather than
His