248 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



and the soldiers were using their army flame-throwers to destroy the 

 locusts in the early morning and just after sundown (when the 

 insects were sluggish). I was told that the poultry of the region, 

 although hungry for live grasshoppers prior to the coming of the 

 soldiers, later, after tasting the insects when they had been killed 

 by the flame, preferred the roasted locusts and would no longer 

 cat the live ones. Marchal was received everywhere on this trip with 

 the greatest respect. In spite of his extremely modest demeanor, his 

 great worth had evidently become impressed upon all classes of people. 



Referring to this apparent shyness, he surprised me in 1923 when 

 we attended the international olive-fly conference together at Madrid. 

 He was made the chairman of the scientific section of the congress, 

 and he presided with a dignity and a savoir-faire that commanded 

 my surprised admiration. 



When in the autumn of 1928 he was elected President of the 

 International Congress of Entomology to be held in Paris in August, 

 1932, he declined at once, and finally accepted only at the strong 

 urging of his best friends and those who, therefore, knew him best. 

 After seeing him in the chair at Madrid, I have no doubt of his 

 perfect competence to conduct the presidential functions in 1932. 



ITALY 



Italy was early the home of many famous naturalists and physi- 

 cians, and in entomology has produced many well known workers. 



Conte Carlo Passerini (1793-1857), Professor in the Museum of 

 Natural History in Florence, was one of the early writers seriously 

 to consider economic entomology. One of his very early pai:)ers 

 treated of the olive-fly and was published in 1829. Later he wrote 

 about the insect enemies of a number of cultures. Giovanni Passerini 

 ( 1816-1893), Professor in the University of Parma, made an espe- 

 cial study of the Aphididae and wrote a number of important papers. 

 Prof. Camillo Rondani (1807-1879), also of Parma, wrote exten- 

 sively on the Diptera, studied with care the parasitic families, and was 

 one of the earliest writers to advance theories regarding natural 

 control. 



Antonio Villa, a learned coleopterist, who began to publish in 

 1833, became interested in migratory grasshoppers in 1845 and in 

 that year published a significant jiaper entitled " The Carnivorous 

 Insects Used to Destroy the Species Injurious to Agriculture." This 

 essay was instigated by the ofl^er of a gold medal liy the Societ}- for 

 the Encouragement of Arts and Crafts of Milan to the person who 

 should undertake with some success new experiments tending to 



