The South Australian Naturalist. 9 



)>iagdalis rufimanus, Lea; Elleschus castelnaui. Lea; EUcschodes incon- 

 stans. Lea: Laemosaccus instabilis. Lea; Haplonyx myrrhatus, Pasc. ; H. 

 se.vvittatus, Chev. ; H. (Aollcs) irifasciatus, Lea; H. (Aolles) orbiculatus, 

 Lea; Diethusa insigniia, Elstoii ; Melantarius pccloralis, Lea; M. tris- 

 tis (?), Lea. 



BRUCHIDAE.— /?r//r/juj- Ivndhurstcusis, Blackb. ; B. oodnadattae 

 Blackb. 



CERAMBYCIDAE.— 6>/i?7//.y microps. Blackb.; Peinpsaiuacra dis- 

 pcrsa. Newra. 



CHRY SOMYlATiKE.—Ditr op idus sobrinus. Lea; D. jacobi, Baly; 

 D. intonsus, Lea; D. gymnopicrus. Lea; D. canescens, Chap.; D. coucolor, 

 Saund. ; D. cuneatus. Chap. ; D. pubicollis. Chap. ; Cryptoccphalus complus, 

 Lea; Loxopleurus atcr, Saund.; Toniyris laefa, Blackb.; lidusa pulchra, 

 Elston : E. diversicolUs, Blackb. ; E. piiberula, Bohem. ; Calomela ioptera, 

 Baly; Paropsis suturalis, Germ.; P. atoinaria, Marsh.; P. aeneipcnnis. 

 Chap. ; Lougitarsus victorienJis, Blackb. ; Plectroscclis quadraticoUis, 

 Blackb.; Monolepta divisa, Blackb.; M. nigricornis, Blackb.; M. incon- 

 spicua, Blackb. 



COCCINELIDAE. — Bucolus fourneti. Muls. ; Scyiinius notcsccns, 

 Blackb. ; 6^. flavifrons, Blackb. ; 5". ourugineus, Blackb. : .b\ mcyricki, 

 Blackb.; Rhizobius pulcher, Blackb.; R. umbratus, Blackb.; R. noctu- 

 abundus, Lea. 



THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



(By Wm. Ham.) 



We are only very dimly becoming aware of the enormous impor- 

 tance of the study of Nature, even when regarded merely from the 

 materialistic and monetary point of view. The study of entomolcgy 

 for example, is usually regarded by the man in the street as a harm- 

 less t3'pe of lunacy. Yet the mighty Panama Canal, rightly regarded 

 as one of th.e greatest triumphs of man's intellect, imagination, and 

 technical skill, owes its successful completion to the laborious and 

 obscure studies of a number of students of Nature, who spent much 

 of their leisure in studying the development and life habits of mem- 

 bers of the insect world. 



Major Ronald Ross, of the Indian Army, after long and patient 

 search, was at last rewarded in 1897 by the discovery in the dissected 

 stomach of an anopheles mosquito, of the malaria parasite, which 

 had been previously observed in human blood by the French doctor 

 Laverau, as far back as 1880. During the greater part of those 17 

 years many scores of students had patiently experimented and ob- 

 served many species of insects with a view of discovering in what 

 way the malaria could be spread. After Major Ross's discovery, he 

 himself spent two whole years in working out the life history of the 

 particular mosquito which he had found to act as host to this 

 dangerous parasite. 



The Canal death rate under the French regime had been enor- 

 mous. Two-thirds of the working force were always in the hospitals. 

 The very rneasures which were adopted to prevent the spread of the 

 disease assisted in rendering it more deadly. Following upon the 

 discoveries of Major Ross and the patient investigation of an army 

 of Nature students, the United States officials were able to check it 

 at its source, and to so improve the conditions that the canal zone 

 became a sanitarium rather than the lazar house it had previously 

 been. 



