Memoirs of the Indian Museum

In an earlier paper (1940) we published all the information available about the hosts, distribution and biological features of the parasitic species of the group Chalcidoidea, especi- ally those represented in the Imperial Pusa Collection in the laboratory of the Imperial Ento- mologist at New Delhi. [...] The importance of this parasite in the control of the Lepidopterous borers of sugarcane is due probably to two factors : (1) the great preponderance of females over males and (2) the high fecundity of the female. [...] When the chief flight of the moths occurs, the parasite is scarce in the field, so that the first brood of host eggs practically escapes parasitisation. [...] The percentage of parasitisation of the eggs is 12 in the case of Hapalia machaeralis and 1 in the case of Hyblaea puera. [...] The parasite, if found in large numbers, serves, however, to reduce the density of population of the midges in the next generation and thus may indirectly minimise the damage to the succeeding crop.