INCREASED RAVAGKS OF INTRODUCED INSECTS. 9 



country so greatly exceed those exported, that tlie preponderance, 

 added to our native forms, seems to warrant the assertion that 

 " America is the home of insects." 



2. The Increased Destructiveness of Introduced Insects. — It 



is well known to entomologists that those of our insect pests which are of 

 European origin have become far more injurious here than they were 

 ever known to be in their native homes. This may be illustrated by a 

 reference to a few of our injurious species. The Avheat-midge, intro- 

 duced to this country about the year 1820, and first observed in North- 

 ern Vermont;* has never, throughout its entire European history, ex- 

 tending over nearly a century and a half, displayed an approach to the 

 destructiveness which it has shown since its advent here. Its injuries 

 have indeed, at times, created alarm and entailed serious losses in por- 

 tions of England and Scotland, but on the Continent its existence was 

 hardly known for a century after its discovery, and subsequent to that 

 time it had not been very prevalent. Curtis, in writing of the species, 

 calls it the British wheat-midge (indicating a restricted European 

 range), and states that M. Herpin is of the opinion that it is an inhabit- 

 ant of France.f 



Tlie ravages of the cabbage-butterfly, Pieris rapcB Linn., brought 

 to this country by the way of Quebec, about the year 1S58, have 

 greatly exceeded those committed by it in Europe. It has proved very 

 destructive to cabbages wherever it has appeared, audit seems destined 

 to spread over all of the United States, as it crossed the Missouri river 

 in 1880 and has entered Nebraska.^ 



The asparagus-beetle, Crioceris asparagi (Linn.), which has at times 

 destroyed entire plantations of asparagus upon our sea-board in the 

 vicinity of New York, has been known for centuries in Europe, but 

 has hardly been referred to by writers on economic entomology as an 

 injurious insect. Although common in Russia, a writer in referring 

 to it, in 1880, states, that it is never known to be obnoxious there. 



The carpet-beetle, Anthfenus scrophiilarice (Linn.), first noticed in 

 this country in the year 1872, has been recognized as a common 

 species throughout a large part of Europe for more than a centuryo 

 While in several portions of the United States its ravages on carpets 

 have excited serious alarm in housekeepers and have threatened to 

 compel a resort to uncarpeted floors, no instance is known of its ever 

 having been detected in feeding upon carpets in Europe, although 

 stated to be injurious to "furs, clothes, animal collections and even 

 leather and dried plants." More frequent reference is made by Eu- 



*Fitch, Sixth-Ninth Reports Ins. iV. Y., 1865, p. 8. 

 ^Farm Insects, 1860, pp. 260, 266. 

 XCanadiari Entomologkt, xiv, 1882, p. 40. 



