90 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



seven hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars have been 

 spent in a territory comprising about two hundred square 

 miles. The end is not yet, for Dr. Howard, chief of the Divi- 

 sion of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 in his report on The G-ypsy Moth in America, from whose paper 

 these facts have been taken, says that appropriations must con- 

 tinue for several years in order to exterminate the insects. 



The Division of Entomology of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has been the means of saving large sums 

 to the agricultural interests of the country by its various 

 activities, such as the importation from other countries of 

 beneficial species and its study of the habits of insects to 

 find the best method of attack. Many of the states maintain 

 boards of agriculture which employ entomologists. 



The cotton-boll weevil (Anthon'omus yran'dis) has recently 

 become a serious menace to the cotton industry of the south- 

 ern states. The weevils are beetles possessing a long snout ; 

 this organ is often used by the female for piercing the tissues 

 of plants to deposit her eggs. Among the weevils are many 

 formidable enemies of the farmer. In this particular case 

 the cotton industry has in some places been threatened with 

 practical extinction. The Division of Entomology has been 

 unremitting in its effort to find means to check the ravages 

 of this weevil. 



The relations recently discovered between some of the 

 Diptera and disease must not be overlooked in considering 

 the influence of insects on man, outside of his interests in 

 agriculture. 



Among beneficial insects may be mentioned the parasitic 

 ichneumon-flies among the Hymenoptera, and the carnivo- 

 rous lady-beetles and many ground-beetles among the Cole- 

 optera. Comparatively few insects are directly useful to 

 man ; among such may be mentioned the silkworm, honey- 

 bee, cochineal-insect and lac-insect. 



