ANNUAL WINTER MEETING AT WARRENSBURG. 275 



Another group of two-winged flies, which should by no means be 

 omitted from a list of beneficial insects, are the Syrphidm. In the per- 

 fect state these are medium-sized, slender flies, usually having the body 

 banded across with bright colors and are often found on flowers. The 

 larvge are disagreeable, slug-like maggots, which are among the dead- 

 liest enemies of plant lice, both of the root and leaf-feeding species, 

 and it is incredible how quickly they will devour an entire colony of 

 their '' small game." They also feed upon the eggs of larger insects 

 such as moths, beetles and bugs, thus exterminating in their incipiency 

 a horde of pests. 



From the few examples here brought forward — to which, had time 

 permitted, I might have added as many more — it will be seen that we 

 have numerous friends directly and indirectly in the insect world. And 

 for the prominence of our foes among this class of animals we are, in 

 a certain sense, ourselves responsible. 



Nature's balances are well adjusted, but man, in providing for his 

 necessities, according to the advanced civilization of the present age, 

 destroys these adjustments. He replaces the varied indigenous vege- 

 tation by cultivating thousands of acres to a single food-producing 

 plant. Very naturally the insects which this plant fosters multiply in 

 proportion, and their natural enemies are for a time unable to keep 

 them in check. But eventually the most serious pests become so re- 

 duced in numbers by parasites and predaceous foes of their own 

 class as to reader them comparatively harmless. This is illustrated by 

 the case of the Colorado potato beetle, which, upon its advent into the 

 more densely populated States east of the Mississippi, was almost exter- 

 minatingly destructive to the plants upon which it fed, but at the pres- 

 ent time gives very little trouble to the gardener. 



Insects iutroduced from foreign countries, for example the codling 

 moth and the European cabbage butterfly, are more difficult to con- 

 quer, as their natural enemies are left behind, a id it requires some 

 years for indigenous parasitic species to develop the habit of preying 

 on them. Efforts have been made — but scarcely with pronounced 

 success as yet — to introduce the European parasites. This would cer- 

 tainly seem to be feasible if the task were intrusted to qualified col- 

 lectors, and would be the surest way of obtaining the ascendency over 

 this destructive pest. 



In conclusion I must repeat, what every economic entomologist 

 has so otten urged, that the farmer and horticulturist should learn to 

 discriminate between his friends and his foes among the flying and 

 crawling myriads, and not ruthlessly crush with his foot the beetle 

 that is busily searching for the larvae ol codling moth or curculio, or 



