February, '16] HOWARD: prospaltella berlesei 181 



has been the commercial carriage of Coccidse upon plants imported 

 from one countrj^ to another that it is no longer possible to ascertain 

 the original country of the majority of the species, and naturally the 

 same may be said for their parasites. In fact, as I have elsewhere 

 pointed out,^ the entire Aphehnine fauna of the United States was rad- 

 ically changed by these accidental importations in the twenty years 

 between 1880 and 1900. Prospaltella berlesei occurs in Japan, as was 

 ascertained by Berlese after its discovery in Italy from twigs sent from 

 Washington. In Washington its host was first discovered about 1894. 

 No effort was made to rear parasites from it until the lilac twigs bear- 

 ing it were sent to Berlese in 1906, but the parasite may have come in 

 from almost any part of the world, since plants were being brought to 

 Washington from many points. The manner of the introduction of 

 the scale in Washington is unknown, and there are no data for even a 

 respectable theory. The same must be said of the parasite. 



Berlese assumes that: "This species was imported to Washington 

 by Marlatt without his knowledge with material gathered in the ex- 

 treme east" (free translation). This assumption is purely theoretical, 

 and, as a matter of fact, is groundless. I myself examilied all the 

 parasites reared from the Coccid material sent in by Marlatt, including 

 that reared from Diaspis pentagona shipped as food for Chilocorus sim- 

 ilis, and, as Marlatt has pointed out (loc. cit.), the only species reared 

 from this scale were Aphelinus fuscipennis How. and Aspidiotiphagus 

 citrinus (Craw.), the latter being the most numerous. There is no 

 chance that the Prospaltella was unknowingly imported by Marlatt. 



Professor Berlese is greatly to be congratulated on the successful 

 outcome of his intelligent and perservering and arduous work in this 

 great experiment, and it is a great satisfaction to the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and to American workers generally that 

 the United States was able to assist somewhat in return for the many 

 courtesies shown to workers in the Department and in the country 

 generally by Berlese and his Italian colleagues. 



The joint session then adjourned. The Association of Economic 

 Entomologists were then photographed on the front steps of the 

 Botany and Zoology Building. They reconvened in another room and 

 a paper was presented by Mr. J. R. Parker. 



^Bulletin de la Societe entomologique de France, 1911, No. 12, pp. 258-259. 



