WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 255 



was doing effective work, they would be liable to lose the benefits 

 derived from its activities by introducing other parasites, thus bring- 

 ing about what Fiske subsequently called " superparasitism," and 

 predatory enemies like Coccinellidae which would eat indifferently 

 healthy scales and those parasitized by Prospaltella. 



A heated discussion began between the two authorities in the 

 columns of the Italian newspapers and in publications of scientific 

 societies, and the rift in their friendship widened rapidly into a pro- 

 nounced enmity. The result was that in a short time Italy was divided 

 into two schools, the Silvestri school and the Berlese school. None 

 of the assistants of Silvestri could be induced to say a single good 

 word about Berlese and his followers ; and the reverse was equally 

 true. Visiting Florence in 1910, I found Berlese absent, but he sent 

 one of hiis assistants — -Paoli — to my hotel to try to get me to place 

 myself on record as supporting him against Silvestri. This I declined 

 to do, as I did not wish to antagonize so useful and so fine a man as 

 Silvestri. The fight was too strenuous, and I felt that if I had any 

 duty in the matter it was to try to bring the two men together rather 

 than to accentuate the antagonism. 



As a matter of fact (although I do not know the exact status of 

 Prospaltella and Diaspis in Italy) my present view is that on the 

 whole Berlese was right. There have been since those days some 

 experiments which seem to justify his attitude rather fully. I have 

 in mind especially the success of Opius huinilis against the fruit-fly 

 in Hawaii, which was much decreased and hampered by the subse- 

 (juent introduction of two or three other parasites, by Silvestri him- 

 self, who was employed by the Hawaiian government for this 

 purpose. 



In 1920, the last time I saw Berlese, I found that he had been 

 given greatly improved facilities in Florence ; had a large laboratory, 

 beautifully furnished reception rooms, and had started an especial 

 Prospaltella museum in which, among other exhibits, he had the cover 

 of the box in which Marlatt sent the original lilac branches from 

 Washington. I visited Battista Grassi on this trip, and Grassi made 

 fun of Berlese. (They are both dead now, so that it will do no harm 

 to tell the story.) He showed me a mulberry tree in his garden, badly 

 infested with the scale, and asked, "Where are the Prospaltellas ? " 

 And then went on to say (in French), " Berlese seems to think that 

 he is the sole proprietor of Prospaltella and the Prospaltella idea. 

 I do not think that he recognizes the hand of the good Lord in the 

 creation of this parasite." 



