438 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Chief Entomologist for three years ; then returned to Peru where he 

 became Expert on Cotton Plagues of the Chamber of Commerce and 

 Agriculture at Iquitos and in 1926 Chief Entomologist of the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station at Lima. In 191 2 he published a care- 

 fully prepared statement entitled (translated) " Entomological Work 

 in Peru." In this paper he attempted to estimate the damage done by 

 insects to the principal crops of Peru, indicating the losses in pounds 

 sterling, as follows : sugar cane, 929,301 ; cotton, 867,607 ; coco. 

 19,466; rice, 22,989; the vine, 79,814; cofifee, 19,380; tobacco, 15,530; 

 cacao, 3,630; other crops such as corn, beans, cereals, alfalfa and 

 other forage plants. Citrus and other fruits, olives, yucca, potatoes, 

 sweet potatoes, vegetables of all classes, etc., 625,000; making a total 

 of 2,682,717 pounds [or, in American money, $12,039,028]. He 

 further indicated that these figures do not include the enormous losses 

 suffered by Peru from the following causes : locust swarms which 

 occur nearly every year in certain parts of the Republic ; diseases of 

 cattle, some of which appear to be transmitted by ticks or other biting 

 insects ; the practically complete elimination of Citrus cultivation in 

 the coast region of central Peru due to pests which killed off the trees 

 40 years earlier ; the damage to rubber forests and rubber plantations 

 by insects ; the immense losses in human lives caused by insects that 

 transmit such diseases as verruga, uta, malaria, bubonic plague, typhus, 

 tuberculosis, cholera, anthrax, and others. 



He argued for a governmental service in economic entomology and 

 predicted that a saving of at least half the damage could be eft'ected 

 in a short time. In this paper he went on to generalize further from 

 the situation in Peru as to the whole of South America, pointing out 

 that that continent is the richest region on earth in the variety of 

 insect life. 



In the course of his residence in Peru Doctor Townsend published 

 many important papers treating of a great variety of crops and their 

 insect pests. He also did important work in medical entomology and 

 was the first to determine the insect carrier of verruga. 



He was given a year's leave of absence by the Peruvian Government 

 in 1927-28, and spent most of his time in Europe gathering data for 

 the completion of a monograph of Muscoid flies. During his absence 

 his post in Peru was held by George N. Wolcott who went there from 

 Haiti where he had been for some time following his holding of an 

 entomological position in Porto Rico. IMr. Wolcott published a good 

 bulletin on plant-lice that attack the sugar cane in Peru, in which he 

 considered the relation of these insects to the mosaic disease of the 

 leaves of the plant. 



