A group of experts headed by Professor Yang Zhongqi have developed a technique to mass produce the natural enemy of the fall webworm, a tiny type of alkali bee named Chouioia Cunea Yang.

　　Wang Chuanzhen, senior engineer with Yangtai Municipal Forest Protection Station in Yantai in east China's Shandong province, said the bee was chosen after systematic research since 1995 on 26types of fall webworms.

　　During two consecutive studies of 1,300 ha test fields, Chouioia Cunea Yang have been found parasitized in 95.8 percent ofpupas of fall webworms, bringing the fall webworms under effectivecontrol, says Wang.

　　The research project has passed an evaluation organized by the Science and Technology Department of the Shandong provincial government.

　　Fall webworms were first found in China in 1979 in Dandong cityin Liaoning province, northeast China, and are capable of harming over 140 sorts of plants, including broadleaf trees, vegetables and crops.

　　Wang said that the fall webworm is very adaptable and is resistant to farm chemicals, and the spraying of farm chemicals during 1988 and 1995 has failed to curb the epidemic situation in some coastal areas in China.