INTRODUCTION 



NSECTS AND MITES THAT ATTACK CACTUS have been the subject of 

 considerable inquiry during recent years in the United States of 

 America, India, Ceylon, South Africa, and Madagascar, as well as 

 in Australia. On behalf of some of these countries, further investi- 

 gations have been made in the United States and Mexico. 



To place on record for these and other investigations the vast amount 

 of information collected by officers of the Commonwealth Prickly 

 Pear Board and by the Queensland Department of Lands during 

 1921-1939 and 1958-59, this publication has been prepared. 



The Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board was an independent 

 organization representing a cooperative effort by the Governments 

 of the Commonwealth and the States of Queensland and New South 

 Wales, and was financed entirely by them. It was appointed in 1920 

 expressly to attempt control of prickly pears in Australia by estab- 

 lishing insects and mites that fed on these cacti. These were to be 

 imported from North and South America after host-restriction tests 

 had been conducted to verify their host specificity. 



Successful accomplishment of the great experiment became apparent 

 in 1939, and the Board was disbanded. Continuance of any further 

 investigations and the maintenance of a watching brief was left in 

 the hands of the two States. In Queensland the Department of Lands 

 established a Biological Section with laboratory, glasshouse, and 

 insectary facilities in which to carry on the work. New South Wales 

 continued with a State Prickly Pear Commission, 



The information in this publication has been extracted by J. Mann 

 and A. P. Dodd from the overseas reports of L. F. Hitchcock, R. C. 

 Mundell, A. P. Dodd, A. R. Taylor, and J. Mann on their investiga- 

 tions in North, Central, and South America; from information in the 

 files of the Alan Fletcher Research Station, Queensland Department 

 of Lands; and from works listed in the bibliography (p. 155). 



During the investigations, types of the new species reared by the 

 various investigators, as well as specimens of most of the species studied, 

 were placed in the United States National Museum. 



The earliest record of an insect attacking cactus dates back several 

 hundred years. Alexander von Humboldt has said (1812) that there is 



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