JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



DECEMBER, 1912 



The editors will thankfully receive news items and other matter likely to be of In- 

 terest to subscribers. Papers will be published, so far as possible, In the order of re- 

 ception. All extended contributions, at least, should be in the hands of the editor the 

 first of the month preceding publication. Reprints may be obtained at cost. Con- 

 tributors are requested to supply electrotypes for the larger illustrations so far as pos- 

 sible. The receipt of all papers will be acknowledged.— Eds. 



The transmission of diseases affecting man by insects has been 

 regarded, up to recent years, as being limited in considerable measure 

 to tropical or sub-tropical regions. Successive discoveries have led 

 to a modification of this opinion, and the recently demonstrated con- 

 nection between the deadly infantile paralysis and the stable fly still 

 further emphasizes the danger of too intimate association with certain 

 Hexapoda, especially Diptera. This discovery made by the entomolo- 

 gist working with the medical man is a most important contribution 

 to knowledge and of incalculable value in the successful control 

 of one of the more deadly infections to which man is subject. 

 Similar investigations of relations which may possibly exist between 

 obscure diseases and insects is most advisable and is an exceedingly 

 promising field for future work. 



A correct biology is a postulate of efficient practical entomology. 

 The great demand for economic work has reacted upon insect biology 

 and many investigators in widely separated sections of the country 

 have been stimulated to undertake the elucidation of special problems. 

 Our European confreres have not overlooked this field; pedogenesis 

 and polyembryony were demonstrated abroad and confirmed in this 

 country. The same is true of parasites ovipositing in the egg and an 

 arrested development making possible the nourishment and gro"wi:h 

 of the Hymenopteron at the expense of the larval host. It is a strik- 

 ing coincidence that two groups of American investigators, whose 

 papers appear in this issue, should work out the same problem on oppo- 

 site borders of this country and demonstrate the occurrence of this 

 peculiar life history in representatives of two of the great families of 

 the parasitic Hymenoptera, namely the Chalcididse and the Braconidae, 

 while the earlier work of Marchal, alluded to above, showed the same 

 to be true of the Proctotrypidae. Another striking in.stance along the 

 same line is the confirmation by American writers, of the peculiar 

 oviposition habits of certain Tachinid flies first worked out by a Jap- 

 anese student and for a time deemed almost incredible. These facts 

 are most interesting from a scientific standpoint and are frequently 



