. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. 280 THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. ships of this insect to the development of seed on the tree and the beautifully adapted habits of the insect to the special structure of this fig were found identical with those determined for the More ton Bay Fig. The insects in neither case are new to science. Mr. W. W. Frogatt has collected Pleistodontes froggaffi and Pleistodontes hnperialis from the More- ton Bay and Port Jackson Figs res- pectively, and was the first to publish interesting data respecting them. This ajDpeared in The Agricultural Gazett
. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. 280 THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. ships of this insect to the development of seed on the tree and the beautifully adapted habits of the insect to the special structure of this fig were found identical with those determined for the More ton Bay Fig. The insects in neither case are new to science. Mr. W. W. Frogatt has collected Pleistodontes froggaffi and Pleistodontes hnperialis from the More- ton Bay and Port Jackson Figs res- pectively, and was the first to publish interesting data respecting them. This ajDpeared in The Agricultural Gazette of Neiv South Wales for June, 1900, and in his Austtalian Insects. The complete details of the writer's work have been published in the Haivaiian Planter's Record for June, 1921. With the above facts in hand one could be certain that an introduction of these living insects to the Hawaiian Islands was essential before the few trees already in the Islands would be made to produce good seed. This was done. Shipments of live insects from tlie Moreton Bay Fig were successfully made from Sydney in September, 1921, and January, 1922. Both became well estaWished in the trees in Honolulu on wliich they were liberated and have continued living through many gener- ations of their cycle, actively ojDcrating ^m Pfc^ ^^^pp l^^g^ 1^ ^^3 jf -*t^s ^? â *⢠"^ ^ ^m^^Bb. A Moreton Bay Fig, Ficus macrophyUa, growing in front of Kirribilli House, Sydney. This tree is over a century old. [I'liot".âA. Miisgrai'i'. An avenue of Moreton Bay Fig trees grow- ing in the Sydney Domain. [Photo.â,1. Miisyrare. in those trees and inducing the develop- ment of hundreds of pounds of fertile seed right up to the present writing (January, 1923). Hundreds of thous- ands of young seedling trees have been since secured through the plantingof this seed, and it has been made possible only through the introduction of these par- ticular insects. Up to the present at least a million of these young trees
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