FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



proceeded to Montpellier, where we spent a day with Picard. 

 And it was here that we had the first encouraging news from 

 Paris. Marchal received a telegram stating that ten Uving 

 Aphehnus had emerged from the odds and ends on the paper 

 under the pear tree! 



We then went on to Marseilles, and later to Menton, to see the 

 Insectarium then existing there under the charge of Poutiers. 

 There we had more good news. Another telegram came from 

 Paris. Two hundred more of the Aphelinus had emerged. 



A few days later I went down into Italy, and when I found 

 myself in Paris again, late in August, the grandchildren and 

 great-grandchildren of the survivors of the parasites I had 

 brought over were existing in Marchal's experimental garden 

 literally by millions. 



Thus, apparently, there had been added to the French fauna 

 a new element that promised to be of great use. But the question 

 as to whether it would pass the winter successfully was still un- 

 answered. It did. And from that beginning it has been sent 

 from one country to another, establishing itself successfully in 

 practically all of the more southern countries, where it has 

 helped greatly to settle one of the serious problems of the fruit- 

 growers. In the more northern countries it has not done as well. 

 I am told that in England it has not proved of great value. 

 Recent reports, however, show that in certain of the Balkan 

 countries it is doing very well. 



But this is not all. A South African student, Mr. A. E. 

 Lundie, studying at Cornell University a year or so later, sent 

 woolly root-lice parasitized by this Aphelinus to South Africa, 

 and in certain places in the Union it is said to thrive. Moreover, 

 after my return to the United States I sent the species in num- 

 ber to Uruguay, and from there it was sent to other South 

 American countries. The reports concerning its work are enthusi- 



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