12 



CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. 



[Bull. 



Entomologist Dr. L. O. Howard in a paper on " A Case of Ex- 

 cessive Parasitism." The parasite in this case attacked an in- 

 jurious scale insect {Lecanium iietcheri), and in practically one 

 week this large percentage of offspring issued, probably from a 

 single mother. From this brief survey of the interesting phases 

 of insect parasites, the possibilities of breeding them on a large 

 scale and liberating them to attack our insect foes must be ap- 

 parent. It is highly probable that man can successfully employ 

 these minute friends, whose whole ambition in life is to para- 

 sitize and thus destroy their hosts. Let us hope that the day is 

 not far distant when the insectaries for fehe breeding of our in- 

 sect friends will vie with the sericulture and apiculture insectaries, 

 and be entitled to the respect now enjoyed by the vaccine, anti- 

 toxin, and other serum laboratories throughout our country. 



The work of many bees is also of immense economic im- 

 portance, in that they pollinate flowers, and thus cause the set- 

 ting of fruit which could in no other way be effected, for cer- 

 tain plants are entirely dependent for fertilization upon certain 

 bee visitors, which alone carry the pollen or fertilizing agent 

 from the male to the female portion of the plant as they go from 

 flower to flower in search of nectar and pollen for their own ends. 



Then, too, there is the profitable industry of apiculture built 

 upon the fact that the honey-bee {Apis mellifera), introduced 

 from Europe, stores up a much greater quantity of honey than is 

 used by the colony in the hive. Through the successful manipu- 

 lation of these honey-bees alone, substances of economic im- 

 portance are being put on the market. Information about the 

 honey-bees can be found in every library, and interesting books 

 on this species alone can be had almost anywhere. 



Aside from the field of economic science that these insects 

 offer, there is another broad field of observation that has proven 

 of interest to people in all walks of life. This is the study of the 

 habits of ants, wasps, and bees, both as to the homes they make 

 and as to their relations to plants. 



Temperature, moisture, and soil are the more important fac- 

 tors that govern the distribution of plants ; hence the same phe- 

 nomena directly and indirectly influence the distribution of in- 

 sects, and furnish a basis for the study of the geographical dis- 

 tribution of animal life. According to C. Hart Merriam's map, 



