ARGENTINA 



The Republic of Argentina was fortunate in having for many 

 years, as a resident of Buenos Aires and as Director of the National 

 Museum, Dr. Hermann Burmeister, the author of the famous 

 " Handbuch der Entomologie." 



The ravages of migratory locusts in several countries of South 

 America have attracted great attention, and Argentina, like several of 

 the other countries, has formed from time to time commissions of 

 investigation. Doctor Burmeister devoted most of his time to the 

 study of paleontology and to the building up of a general museum, but 

 he also made large collections of insects and at a comparatively early 

 date studied the migratory locust problem. In 1861, his " Reise 

 durch die Plata Staaten," a two-volume work published in Halle, 

 summarized previous writings upon locusts in Argentina and gave a 

 rather full account of the life history of the insect and of the dam- 

 age that it had done almost annually. 



The real beginnings of both systematic and economic entomology 

 in Argentina, however, date from 1873. In that year the first Ento- 

 mological Society in the country was founded, and a year later the 

 Sociedad Cientifica Argentina was started and the Science Academy 

 in Cordoba began the publication of its Annals. 



In 1897 a governmental locust commission was established, entitled 

 Comision para la Extincion la Langosta. This was the immediate 

 predecessor of the Defensa Agricola which still exists and is the 

 organization for fighting the insect and other enemies of agriculture. 



Prior to the establishment of the locust commission, two German 

 employees of the Argentine Government, Dr. H. Weyenbergh and 

 Dr. E. Oldendorff, investigated and reported upon injurious locusts 

 during those years. 



In 1897 the United States Department of Agriculture was ap- 

 pealed to to nominate an entomologist especially skilled in the study 

 of destructive locusts. Prof. Lawrence Bruner, of the University 

 of Nebraska, who had been connected with the work of the United 

 States Entomological Commission against the Rocky Mountain locust 

 and who had later made survey journeys to note locust conditions for 

 the Department of Agriculture, was nominated and went to Argen- 

 tina where he carried on investigations for some time and submitted 

 a very good report which was published in March, 1898. 



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