BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



The native species are not alone concerned in the billion 

 dollars worth of damage done annually by injurious insects. 

 Some years ago the European gypsy moth and browntail 

 moth became established and made a good start toward 

 destroying the trees of New England; and their ravages 

 have been held in check only through the constant efforts 

 of experts and the expenditure of more than eight million 

 dollars. At the present time the European corn borer, the 

 larva of another moth, threatens to become a serious 

 pest, a pest which would probably destroy the corn crop 

 almost entirely if allowed to spread and multiply without 

 attention from the economic entomologists. It was intro- 

 duced into Massachusetts, probably in broom corn, in 

 1917 or a little earlier, and has spread as far as New Hamp- 

 shire, Ontario, and Ohio. Poisoning is of little use, as the 

 caterpillar lives inside the stalks of corn, dahlia, and other 

 plants; so the methods of control, as deduced from scientific 

 studies of the insect, consist chiefly of destroying the plant 

 remains in which the species hibernates, and in preventing 

 its further spread. If you are stopped on the road by an 

 officer with a flashlight, it may not be a case of misplaced 

 prohibition zeal; quite likely you will be asked if you 

 have any vegetables or cut flowers in the car. The purpose 

 of the inspection is to determine whether or not you are 

 unwittingly a party to the spread of the corn borer into 

 some hitherto uninfested locality. 



Another foreign undesirable is the Japanese beetle, 

 introduced into New Jersey about 1916. The adult insect 

 feeds on leaves and fruit of many different kinds, doing 

 great damage during June and July, while the grubs 

 (young stages) live in the ground and eat grass roots, 

 often injuring lawns. This species appears to find our 

 climate suitable, for it multiplies enormously and is 

 spreading gradually to neighboring localities. It is thus of 

 great potential importance, and already an elaborate 



[306] 



