398 ENTOMOLOGY 
An insect often passes readily from a wild plant to a nearly 
related cultivated species. Thus the Colorado potato beetle 
passed from the wild species Solanum rostratum to the intro- 
duced species, Solanum tuberosum, the potato. Many of our 
fruit tree insects feed upon wild, as well as cultivated, species 
of Rosaceze; the peach borer, a native of this country, probably 
fed originally upon wild plum or wild cherry. Many of the 
common scarabzeid larvee known as “ white grubs” are native 
to prairie sod, and attack the roots of various cultivated grasses, 
including corn, and those of strawberry, potato and other 
plants. The chinch bug fed originally upon native grasses, 
but 1s equally at home on cultivated species, particularly millet, 
Hungarian grass, rice, wheat, barley, rye and corn. In fact, 
the worst corn insects, such as the chinch bug, wire worms, 
white grubs and cutworms, are species derived from wild 
erasses. 
Even in the absence of cultivated plants their insect pests 
continue to sustain themselves upon wild plants, as a rule; the 
larva of the codling moth is very common in wild apples and 
wild haws. 
The Economic Entomologist.—To mitigate the tremen- 
dous damage done by insects, the individual cultivator is almost 
helpless without expert advice, and the immense agricultural 
interests of this country have necessitated the development of 
the economic entomologist, the value of whose services 1s uni- 
versally appreciated by the intelligent. 
Nearly every State now has one or more economic entomolo- 
gists, responsible to the State or else to a State Experiment 
Station, while the general Government attends to general ento- 
mological needs in the most comprehensive and thorough 
manner. 
“It is the special object of the economic entomologist,” 
says Dr. Forbes, “ to investigate the conditions under which 
these enormous losses of the food and labor of the country 
occur, and to determine, first, whether any of them are in any 
degree preventable; second, if so, how they are to be prevented 
