398 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



engaged by the colony in 1901. In 1904 Mr. Compere was employed 

 jointly by the State of California and by the colony of Western 

 Australia to import parasites of destructive insects. 



In the second volume of the Journal for 1903, apropos to the belief 

 in Western Australia of the claims of the parasite school of Califor- 

 nians, a letter from Prof. C. W. Woodworth, of Berkeley, California, 

 was published, in which he stated bluntly that the California statements 

 had been exaggerated; that California had then very many insect 

 pests, and that the cottony cushion scale was the only one held in 

 check by, its enemies. This letter was answered by Mr. Compere in 

 the Journal, and naturally the answer was very satisfactory from the 

 point of view of the advocates of natural control, but nevertheless it 

 contained misstatements and was misleading. It is interesting to 

 note that in the Journal for 1904 was published an article by W. B. 

 Wall, reprinted from the California Fruit Grower " entirely bearing 

 out the statements made by Mr. Compere." In this article some 

 unfortunate statements were made, as, for example, in referring to 

 John Isaac, he quotes from him and calls him "one of the best 

 known horticultural writers in America." 



In 1903 and 1904 Mr. Compere was on his journeys, and in the 

 number for August 15, 1904, it was announced that he had returned, 

 bringing with him " the parasite of the fruit-fly as well as some other 

 valuable insects." And on pages 68 to '/2 is his report. Among other 

 things, he says " The Staphylinid beetles beyond question destroy the 

 major part of the fruit-fly parasites in Brazil." This was one of his 

 characteristically optimistic statements. He always seems to have 

 seen only one side of the question, and his Staphylinid importation 

 was a flat failure. Moreover, the visit of Lounsbury and Fuller from 

 South Africa to Brazil failed to substantiate Compere's statement as 

 to the efficacy of the Staphylinids. Apparently Western Australia 

 gradually lost confidence in Mr. Compere. In the Journal for 1907 

 he is still referred to as Entomologist to the State, and claims to have 

 successfully imported parasites of the soft brown scale and the grape 

 scale from California into Western Australia. It may be worth while 

 to give, as a good example of the looseness of Mr. Compere's state- 

 ments about this time, the following quotation referring to a species 

 of Lecanium : " Some years ago IVIr. Ehrhorn discovered its parasite, 

 Comys fusca." This common parasite of Lecanium scales had been 

 known to all good entomologists for very many years. I had studied 

 it, and in fact named it, here in Washington nearly 30 years earlier. 



During the time of his employment in Western Australia he secured 

 from the British Museum in London an assistant, Mr. Frederick 



