160 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 13, No. 8 
J. E. Grar exhibited specimens of the Mexican Bean Beetle. He stated 
that these parasites would mate and produce under all conditions. A 
binocular is necessary to detect the eggs as they cannot be detected with a 
hand lens. 
Joun C. Hamurn, who is employed by the Commonwealth of Australia 
to investigate the insects which will destroy the cactus, stated that this plant 
is a great pest in Australia. Experiments for utilizing cacti in making paper 
pulp showed that it took too many cacti to produce a small quantity of pulp. 
Therefore, the experiments failed commercially. The pulp was unsatis- 
factory because it had to have wood fibre mixed with it. 
Mr. Ham iin stated that he was engaged in rearing insects which are natural 
enemies of the cacti to be used as a means of controlling the cacti. He also 
stated that one generation was reared in this country and that two genera- 
tions are reared in Australia before the insects are released to carry on the 
part for which they were taken there. This precaution is undertaken in 
order that no injurious parasites will be introduced that might become pests 
on useful crops. 
Dr. Aupricu reported that he had lately identified Muscina pascuorum 
Meigen, a European species from New England. Mr. C. W. Jonnson of 
the Boston Society of Natural History writes that the species has been found 
in several New England localities within a few days of each other, indicating 
that it has spread rapidly. 
Dr. Howarp recalled the fact that he had presented at an earlier meeting 
of the Society a somewhat lengthy review of the biographical accounts of 
Fabre published after his death in 1915 by Bouvier and Ferton. He stated 
that recently he had published in the Magazine Natural History (vol. xxii, 
No. 4, July-August, 1922), an article entitled A pilgrimage to the home of Fabre, 
in which he described his visit to ““Harmas” in the summer of 1920, and, 
while summarizing Ferton’s criticisms of Fabre, tried nevertheless to give a 
high appreciation of the value of Fabre’s work and quoted the estimate given 
by Wheeler in his introduction to the book by Raus entitled Wasp studies 
afield, in which Fabre is reckoned as one of the three greatest entomologists, 
the others being Reaumur and Latreille. The speaker’s reason for making 
this statement at the presént time is that in the current number of the Ameri- 
can Review of Reviews a page is devoted to the article in Natural History, 
under the title Fabre’s scientific shortcomings, and the review consists almost 
entirely in bringing out the Ferton criticisms, ignoring the final estimate of 
the enormous value of Fabre’s work. In this way the review conveys an 
impression which is unfair to Fabre, unfair to the speaker, and unfair to the 
publishers of the many editions of Fabre’s books. 
SPECIAL MEETING 
A special meeting was held on November 8, 1922, on the occasion of an 
illustrated address on The respiration of insects by Dr. Auaust Krocu of 
Denmark, with Dr. L. O. Howarp in the chair and 60 persons present. 
Dr. Howarp stated that this was the first special meeting of the Society 
since the meeting of February 28, 1894, at which Prof. E. B. Poutron, of 
Oxford University, addressed the Society. 
Dr. Aucusr Kroau said that the suggestion to study the respiration in 
insects with a tracheal system came to him after listening to a paper on the 
anatomy of a Carabid larva read in Copenhagen by Dr. A. G. Bovine more 
than ten years ago. He learned about the forceful muscle complex 
