THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 11 



which they have conferred upon us, in the way of Noxious Insects 

 and Noxious Weeds. It is no such thing. There are but very few 

 American insects that have become naturalized in Europe, and even 

 these do not appear for the most part to do any serious amount of 

 damage there. For example, on one or two occasions single speci- 

 mens of our Army- worm Moth ( Leucania unipuncta) have been cap- 

 tured in England ; but the insect has never spread and become ruin- 

 ously common there, as it continually, in particular seasons, does in 

 America. Our destructive Fea-bug (Bruchus pisi) has also found its 

 way to Europe ; but although it is met with in England, and according to 

 Curtis has become naturalized in the warmer departments of France, 

 Kirby and Spence expressly state that it does not occur in England 

 "to any very injurious extent," and Curtis seems to doubt the fact of 

 its being naturalized in England at all.* Again, the only species of 

 White Ant that exists within the limits of the United States, ( Termes 

 frontalis), has been known for along time to be a guest at the Plant- 

 houses of Schonbrunn, in Germany; but is not recorded to have 

 ever as yet spread into the surrounding country. As to our American 

 Meal-worm (Tenebrio obscurus), Curtis states that it has been intro- 

 duced into England along with American flour, and that it is some- 

 times abundant in London and the provinces;! but Kirby and Spence 

 say not one word about it, and it seems to be confined to the English 

 sea-ports and the places where American flour is stored, without 

 spreading into the adjacent districts. 



A very minute yellow ant, however, {Myrmica molesta), which is 

 often very troublesome with us in houses, has, according to Frederick 

 Smith, "become generally distributed and naturalized" in houses in 

 England; and Kirby and Spence state more specifically, that "it has 

 become a great pest in many houses in Brighton, London and Liver- 

 pool, in some cases to so great an extent as to cause the occupants to 

 leave them."+ As to our Chinch Bug, our Curculio, our Plum Gouger, 

 our two principal Apple-tree Borers, our Canker-worm, our Apple- 

 tree Tent-caterpillar, our Fall Web-worm, our Peach-tree Borer, and 

 our other indigenous pests among the great Army of Bad Bugs, 

 nobody ever yet found a single one of them alive and kicking on the 

 other side of the Atlantic. And with regard to Plants, the only two 

 American plants that we know to have become so firmly established 

 in Europe as to be a nuisance there, are an American aquatic plant, 

 the common Water-weed (Anacharis canadensis), which has choked 

 up many of the canals in England, and our common Horse-weed, or 

 Mare's tail as it is called in the W est, (JErifferon canadense), which has 

 spread from America nearly over the whole world. 



Since then, it can be demonstrated by hard, dry facts, that Amer- 

 ican plants and insects do not become naturalized in the Old World 



*Kirby & Spence Introd. Letter 6th ; Curtis Farm insects, p. 358. 

 "fFarm insects, p 334. 



jSmith in Stainton's Entom. Annual 1862, p. 70, and 1863 pp. 59-62 ; Kirby & Spence Introd^ 

 Letter 8th. 



