い
379
200
extra month's sick leave on full salary, which would postpone the termination of his appointment until the 31st of December, 1924.
Dr. Marshall observed that the Bureau would suffer a serious loss in the termination of Mr. Altson's appointment, as he had rendered very useful service indeed.
(b) Dr. Marshall also mentioned the case of Miss Davenport, Secretary to Dr. Neave, and recommended that in view of the greater responsibility of the work which she was doing, as compared with other members of the staff on the same scale of salary, she should be given, in addition to the ordinary increments of her scale of salary, three special increments, with effect from the 1st of April next year. On the proposal of Dr. MacDougall the Committee approved this recommendation.
8. The Chairman mentioned that certain correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Governor of the Gold Coast regarding tsetse fly work in the Colony had been circulated with the Agenda for a Meeting. Dr. Marshall explained that this correspondence had been circulated merely for the information of Members of the Committee. He did not consider that any action could usefully be taken by the Bureau in the matter.
[51848]
Annexure to No. 65.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY FOR THE HALF-YEAR ENDED 30TH SEPTEMBER,
1924.
Ir will be recalled that last year the Egyptian Government withdrew its contribution of £300 per annum to the funds of the Bureau, but on the other hand, as a result of the representations of Dr. Gough, the local Ministry of Agriculture was permitted to expend £200 in obtaining technical assistance from us during 1923. Private information has recently been received from Cairo to the effect that this permission has been definitely rescinded and that there is not the least likeli- hood of any further grants being made to our funds from this source.
It is
Correspondence is still continuing with reference to the contribution from India, which has not yet been renewed subsequent to the 31st March, 1924. hoped that possibly the Indian Government will agree to contribute at a lower rate than £500, which was the sum paid hitherto. India did not support the Bureau at its inception, and her contribution, which began some years later, was on a different footing from those of the Dominions and Colonies, so that any alteration in it does not affect the arrangement made with the other Governments.
In Appendix I will be found an account of the receipts and disbursements for the past half-year. The Government grants have not come in quite so promptly as at this time last year, being £1,300 lower; on the other hand, there is an increase of £43 in the amount received from investments. The remaining items do not call for comment.
The statement in Appendix II shows the amount of our available funds and an estimate of our liabilities for the remainder of this financial year, the unexpended balance on 31st March, 1925, being estimated at £4,282. With reference to the suggestion of the Conference Sub-Committee that the expenses of the Conference should be met out of the Carnegie Fund, as was done on the last occasion, it may be noted that the balance remaining in that Fund is £271. This should be ample, seeing that the expenditure on the last Conference amounted only to £153.
Collections of Insects.-The work done in connexion with the identification of insects has shown little fluctuation; in the following details the figures for the corresponding six months of last year are given for comparison. In all, 170 (164) consignments of insects were received, containing_29,100. (22,600) specimens, of which 1,300 (1,500) were blood-sucking insects. The lists of names sent out to correspondents totalled 125 (128)-Africa 51, Asia 28, Tropical America 23, Australasia 17, Europe 6--and these comprised 3,630 (3.601) specific identifications. Export of Parasites. At our last meeting the Committee was informed of the very regrettable breakdown in the health of Mr. G. M. Altson, who has so efficiently carried out for us at Rothamsted the work of breeding beneficial parasites for transmission to various parts of the Empire. The medical report on him being at
* No. 81.
201
first optimistic, Dr. Imme kindly endeavoured to carry on the work, with the help of his two assistants, Dr. J. Davidson and Mr. H. M. Morris. It was soon found, however, that this method was not a feasible one, and as there was no likelihood of obtaining a temporary substitute who could do the work without special training in the technique employed, and the season for securing stocks of parasites was nearly at an end, it was decided, after consultation with Dr. Imms, that the only course was to suspend operations temporarily.
The strain of tsetse parasites had been killed off in the spring, because large consignments had already been sent to Nigeria and it was feared that the Chalcids in stock might begin attacking the flies that were being bred from earwigs. Thus the only stocks in hand at the time were two species of Tachmid flies parasitic on earwigs and a disappointingly small supply of Ichneumonid parasites of the Wheat- stem Sawfly, destined for Canada.
It may be recalled that no provision was made at the last Entomological Conference for any undertaking of this kind, and what has been done has been largely in the nature of an experiment. In view of the near approach of another Conference, it may perhaps be advisable to defer restarting this work until there has been an opportunity of discussing the whole subject at this representative gathering of Entomologists. There are two general aspects of the matter that seem to need consideration. In the first place, the benefits that may accrue will be of unequal incidence, the temperate and sub-tropical countries being much more likely to derive advantage from any such scheme than those that are purely tropical. Secondly, England is by no means an ideal country for carrying on work of this nature, and if the supplying of parasites is to be effected on a really satisfactory scale, it will probably be necessary to establish a laboratory somewhere in Southern Europe; and this would naturally involve considerably increased expenditure.
With regard to the insects that have already been sent out, Dr. Ll. Lloyd reports that not a single one of the thousands of tsetse parasites despatched in cool storage emerged after arrival in Nigeria. Of those sent by post, the great majority emerged in transit and were dead on arrival. From one of the earlier lots about 100 living insects were secured, but apparently owing to the great heat they were very inert and no eggs were obtained from them. Fortunately 30 more Chalcids were obtained from one of our latest consignments, when the climatic conditions were more favourable. These were succesfully induced to oviposit and had been carried to the third generation when Dr. Lloyd left Nigeria.
For some reason not yet ascertained the two earwig flies have not done at all well in New Zealand. In a recent letter Dr. Tillyard stated that he had only a small lot of each species left to carry through the winter, and he was very anxious to obtain further supplies from England. He has also asked for assistance in securing insects that might safely be used for the destruction of blackberries and ragwort.
"Bulletin of Entomological Research."-During the half-year another volume (No. XIV) of this periodical has been completed, containing 492 pages, 34 plates and one map.
The following is a statement of the cost of production and the receipts from sales, etc. :-
Printing and
paper
Illustrations Postages
£ 8. d:
£
s. d.
529 18- 9 Subscriptions and sales... 217 12 9 Advertising
279 4
0
3 15
0
32 13 0 Deficit
491 4
6
£774 3
6
£774 3 &
As compared with No. XIII the deficit is £73 less, the cost of illustrations being lower by £95 and the sales higher by £25. On the other hand, although the present volume is six pages less than the preceding one, the charge for printing and paper is £48 higher. However, since the beginning of this year the contract has been given to a new firm of printers, whose prices have so far worked out appreciably lower than those of the Stationery Office, the Review averaging 16s. 6d. a page (against 20s.) and the Bulletin 17s. 10d. (against 21s.)
The circulation continues to increase slowly but surely, the number of sub- scribers being 252, as compared with 241, 212 and 194 in the three preceding years. The very small return from advertisements has been reduced by nearly one-half, and there does not seem to be any hope of improving matters, owing to the circu- lation being much too small to attract advertisers.
Sundry Publications. Mr. F. Laing, of the British Museum, has made a beginning with the preparation of a handbook on Plant Pests in Tropical Africa,
885/26
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