WHAT IS ENTOMOLOGY?— STRONG 379 



to be produced in sufficient quantity for our needs and at a cost 

 making it profitable to so produce, insects must be controlled. Control 

 depends upon research; research means to study, get the facts. 



The science of entomology is fighting insects on many fronts, and 

 every possible known advantage is being taken even to the use of 

 insects against insects. The first importation of iasect parasites into 

 the United States was that of a wasp from England m 1883 to aid in 

 the control of the cabbage worm. Since that date 403 species of 

 insect parasites and predators have been imported from Europe, 

 Africa, Australia, Japan, and other countries, and 73 of these have 

 become established. When Koebele introduced the Vedalia into 

 California and it cleaned up the cottony cushion scale, an insect which 

 threatened the very existence of the citrus industry in that State, 

 there was furnished an early and graphic example of the value of the 

 use of beneficial insects. A beetle which feeds upon mealybugs was 

 imported into the United States from Australia in 1891, and since that 

 date has been distributed to 33 other countries. A parasitic wasp 

 which is native to North America and which attacks the woolly apple 

 aphid and brings it under control has been sent from the United States 

 to 40 countries throughout the world since the first shipment to France 

 in 1920. When, at the suggestion of the officials of the Florida State 

 Plant Board, Clausen was sent to Malaya to take parasites of the 

 citrus blackfly to Cuba, the results were far-reaching and important. 

 Not only did this action reduce the citrus blackfly lq Cuba from a pest 

 of first importance to one of minor rank, but it also reduced the risk 

 which had been present in marked degree of introduction of the pest 

 into this country. Moreover, it was a demonstration of far-sighted 

 planning and of good neighborliness. The work now going on in the 

 collection of beneficial insects, their exchange between nations, and 

 their colonization and study certainly enter into the program of 

 treating of insects. 



It will thus be seen that along with the effort to destroy injurious 

 forms of insects, opportunities have not been entii'ely overlooked to 

 make more helpful to the human race beneficial insects; and among 

 these, of course, one of the outstanding examples is the honeybee. 

 Entomologists have determined that bees are more effective in gather- 

 ing honey and pollinating plants if they can reach farther with their 

 tongues into deeper flowers for the nectar. Hence an effort has been 

 made with substantial progress in developing bees with longer tongues. 

 Since bees in nature mate on the wing only, this recourse to the 

 practice of eugenics in the bee family has been fraught with difficulty 

 but has been successfully accomplished. 



Notwithstanding these efforts we are told from time to time, even 

 by outstanding entomologists, that in our zeal to control or kill injurious 

 insect forms we have too little regard for the well-being of the beneficial 



