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At the National Museum I examined many drawers full of parasitic 

 hymenoptera with Mr. Ashmead, who is one of the leading authorities upon 

 these most interesting little creatures, of so much economic importance in the 

 destruction of pests, and then went through some groups of the Coleoptera 

 with Dr. Swartz. Here, also, is a very fine collection of Psyllidce, or " Leaf 

 Fleas,'' small homopterous insects that are very abundant in Australia, where, 

 on the native bush, they appear to take the place of aphids or plant lice. 



With Mr. Coquillet 1 left some specimens of a fruit-fly, which he has since 

 determined as an undescribed species of Dacus, With Dr. Harrison Dyer 

 the curious slug-moths and their larva? were examined. These are allied to 

 the cup moths of Australia, some of which often defoliate our forest trees. 

 Dr. Hopkins gave me a very interesting morning, going through his work on 

 those insects that play such an important part in the destruction of forest 

 trees. He has been working twelve years on one group of beetles the 

 Scolytidce which do so much damage to the pine trees; and he has had 

 maps prepared showing the range of each species. He has made a study of 

 the life history of each species in detail, which has made his advice of such 

 value to the Forestry Department. 



Some time was spent with Professor Webster, in charge of field crops and 

 their diseases. He is a well-known authority on the Hessian Fly and the 

 Chinch Bug, both very serious wheat-pests in the United States, but not yet 

 known in Australia. One pest that might be very easily introduced into 

 this country is a seed-destroying chalcid wasp (Brucliophagus funebus, How.). 

 It lives in the larval state in the seeds of red clover and lucerne, and has 

 been carried in these seeds into several parts of the world where it was 

 previously unknown. 



With Mr. Quantance I went into the question of fruit-pests and their 

 range in North America, and their methods of using sprays and spraying 

 outfits. Little or no fumigation is done in the Eastern States, probably 

 because the most serious scales that chiefly attack citrus trees in the west 

 are unknown in the New England orchards. Compressed air is used in 

 spraying ; and in some sprayers, used chiefly in the vineyards, the action is 

 geared on the wheels and the nozzles adjusted on either side. 



The cherry and apple fruit-flies, long known as Trypeta pomonella and 

 T cerasi, arj only minor pests, the latter rare; still the apple fruit-fly some- 

 times becomes a very serious pest in isolated places. Later on, at the 

 grounds round Cornell University, we found the apples very badly infested 

 with a grub, which Professor Slingerland said was this fly. One of their worst 

 fruit-pests is the Plum Curculio (Conotrac/telus nenuphar, Horbst.), which 

 damages not only plums but apples, pears, cherry, and peaches. The beetle laya 

 its eggs in the young fruit early in the season, and the adult larvae, after burying 

 themselves in the ground, emerge later on and feed on the ripening fruit. 

 Codling moth and woolly aphis are common in all the apple orchards, but in 

 some of the Northern States, like New Hampshire, and parts of New York 

 State, commercial orchards are very few ; and all through the former State 

 most of the apples were grown along the fences or in very small lots. Georgia 

 is one of the most important fruit-growing States, where a great quantity of 

 peaches and apples is grown. The insectarium at the time I was in Washington 

 had a somewhat neglected look, as it was at the end of the season. There 

 was nothing remarkable about their methods or the way in which they 

 looked after and bred their insects. The Entomological Bureau at Washing- 

 ton has so many field agents in touch with the breeding cages of the 

 Experiment Stations that the central insectarium does not appear to be so 

 important as it was at one time. 



