PROBLEMS IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY IN THE 
PHILIPPINES." 
By Cuartes S. BANKs. 
(From the entomological section, Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science.) 
What central Africa was to the geographical explorer two decades ago, 
the Philippine Islands are to the naturalist and especially the entomol- 
ogist to-day—a vast region, the area of which is surmised to a greater 
or lesser extent, but the richness of which is, even yet, undreamed of. 
In years gone by a few such adventurous spirits as Semper, Cuming, 
Worcester, Bournes, Whitehead, and some others made collections in 
entomology, botany, ornithology, general zodlogy, and conchology, and 
their material has been for the most part thoroughly classified and 
deposited, that which was not in some manner lost or destroyed, in the 
great museums of Europe and America. 
But the question of biological research in so far as economic entomol- 
ogy is concerned has gained an impetus only during the brief years which 
have elapsed since sovereignty of this territory passed from Europe to 
America. I know of but one publication dealing with this important 
phase of biologic work in the Philippines previous to the beginning of this 
century, and that is a small pamphlet by Don Domingo Sanchez y 
Sanchez entitled “Memoria sobre un Insecto Enemigo del Cafeto,” 
published in 1890, and treating of a species of Xylotrechus (Clytus) 
attacking coffee plants in the Province of Batangas. 
Until the establishment of the civil régime under the United States 
Government, no formal work, as far as known, was done upon the locusts 
so common and so abundant in these Islands, and insects affecting coco- 
nuts trees, cacao, forest trees, timber, man, and domestic animals have 
only in very recent years received any degree of attention. 
At the present time, it may be safely said that the two chief questions 
confronting the entomologist in these Islands are those with reference to 
locusts and mosquitoes. 
* Read at the nineteenth annual meeting of the Association of Economic Ento- 
mologists, New York, N. Y., beginning December 27, 1906. 
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