446 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Washington, Mr. C. Heinrich, an expert in the Federal Bureau of 

 Entomology, was sent to Guatemala on an investigating trip in 1929. 

 He found that the European corn borer does not exist in that country 

 but that the reports had been caused by a certain amount of damage 

 done by one of the native corn borers, the larva of Diatraea lineata. 

 A report from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the pres- 

 ent administration is thoroughly alive to questions of insect damage 

 and that competent investigations will probably be made. Mr. Hein- 

 rich reported that he was received with the greatest courtesy by 

 Senor Manuel Herrera, the Minister of Agriculture, and was given 

 every facility for carrying out his investigation. Mr. Heinrich was 

 also greatly assisted by the United Fruit Company, and informs me 

 that a good entomologist from the United States, Mr. Marston Bates, 

 has been appointed Entomologist to the United Fruit Co. and, al- 

 though his headquarters are at Tela, Honduras, spends considerable 

 time in scouting and field work in Guatemala. 



BRITISH WEST INDIES 



A great many West Indian insects were sent to the principal 

 museums of the world, and especially the British Museum of Natural 

 History, from very early dates; and insect damage to crops began 

 at an early time. In the year 1801 a special commission composed of 

 members of the General Assembly of the Bahamas was appointed to 

 investigate the damage done to the cotton crop by the red bug (Dys- 

 dercus sp.) and the chenille {Alabama argillacea). Insect damage 

 to cotton was very marked even before the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century. It is probable that early in the eighteenth century 

 cotton cultivators were accustomed to the injuries of a worm that 

 appeared in great numbers. In Guiana the cotton caterpillar was 

 known to the earliest cultivators of cotton in that country- (1705 to 

 1752). In the Bahamas it was also destructive. In 1788, 250 tons of 

 cotton were devoured by this worm. In 1794, the crop suffered 

 severely in the same way. In 180 1 and 1802 there was an emigration 

 of French cotton planters from ]\Iartinique to southwest Georgia on 

 account of the ravages of the cotton caterpillar. 



After the special commission of 1801, however, no governmental 

 or other work seems to have been done or authorized for approxi- 

 mately 90 years. 



About 1890 the Department of Agriculture at Washington began 

 to receive requests for information about injurious insects from 

 several of the West Indian islands. Mr. H. De Courcy Hamilton, of 

 Montserrat, began to study the insects injurious to Citrus trees which 



