4o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE UTILIZATION OF AUXILIARY ENTOMOPHAGOUS 



INSECTS IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST INSECTS 



INJURIOUS TO AGRICULTURE 



II 



By Professor PAUL MARCHAL 



THE NATIONAL AGRONOMICAL INSTITUTE, PARIS 



Generalization of this Method. Different Applications 



THE striking success brought about in the struggle against Icerya 

 by the use of Novius cardinalis gave rise to great enthusiasm in 

 favor of the method of fighting injurious insects by their parasites. 



First in California, then in Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, 

 under the auspices of Alex. Craw and his adepts, the application of 

 this method became popular and enjoyed extreme favor. From the 

 facts just given, they generalized to excess and imagined that in col- 

 lecting beneficial insects and naturalizing them in the country where 

 they proposed to use them, they would be able to check completely the 

 plagues of agriculture. 



Fight against the Fruit Fly. Compere's Mission. — No example 

 appears to us to show better the belief inspired by this new method, the 

 exaggerated hopes to which it gives birth, and the zeal with which it 

 fills its promoters, than the incredible Odyssey around the world of 

 Mr. Compere, charged at the beginning of 1903 by the government of 

 West Australia with a mission having for its end the search for the 

 home of the fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), and of finding the parasites 

 which in its original home should limit its propagation. This fly, 

 which is a great plague to fruit culture in South Africa, and which 

 has also invaded western Australia, has also for us an interest, since it 

 is abundant in all the Mediterranean regions where it is particularly 

 injurious to oranges in Algeria and Tunis, and which several years 

 ago even made its appearance in the suburbs of Paris, where it attacks 

 peaches and apricots. The Ceratitis has for a long time existed in 

 Mediterranean countries, and it is from this region that it was prob- 

 ably transported to the Cape of Good Hope and to Australia. 



It would seem, then, natural to direct one's observations first to 

 this locality. Nevertheless, the damage accomplished by this insect in 

 the Mediterranean region appears to be too large to warrant the con- 

 clusion that this is its original home. Spain having received the 

 famous fly from one of its colonies, one naturally thinks of the Philip- 



