328 ENTOMOLOGY 



tropics, where the ants, in particular, eradicate tons of decomposing 

 matter that man lazily neglects. 



The usefulness of the silkworms and the honey bee need only be 

 mentioned, and after these, the cochineal insect and the lac insects. 

 The " Spanish fly" a meloid beetle is still used medicinally, and in 

 China medicinal properties are ascribed to many different insects. As 

 human food, insects are of considerable importance among semi-civilized 

 races; the migratory locust is eaten in great quantities in Africa, and 

 termites in Africa and Australia, the latter insects being said to have a 

 delicious flavor; in Mexico the eggs and adults of an aquatic hemipteron, 

 Corixa, are highly relished by some of the natives. As food for fishes, 

 game birds, song birds and poultry, insects are of vast importance, it is 

 needless to say. 



Introduction and Spread of Injurious Insects. Many of our 

 worst insect pests were brought accidentally from Europe, notably the 

 Hessian fly, wheat midge, codling moth (probably), gypsy moth, cabbage 

 butterfly, cabbage aphis, clover leaf beetle, clover root borer, asparagus 

 beetle, imported currant worm and many cutworms; though few Ameri- 

 can species have obtained a foothold in Europe, one of the few being the 

 dreaded Phylloxera, which appeared in France in 1863. 



The gypsy moth, liberated in Massachusetts in 1868, cost the state 

 over one million dollars in appropriations (1890-1899) and is not yet 

 under full control. The San Jose scale insect, a native of North China 

 according to Marlatt, was introduced into the San Jose valley, California, 

 about 1870, probably upon the flowering Chinese peach, became seriously 

 destructive there in 1873, was carried across the continent to New Jersey 

 in 1886 or 1887 on plum stock, and thence distributed directly to several 

 other states, upon nursery stock. At present the San Jose scale is a 

 permanent menace to horticulture throughout the United States and is 

 being checked or subdued only by the vigorous and continuous work of 

 official entomologists, acting under special legislation. This pernicious 

 insect occurs also in Japan, Hawaii, Australia and Chile, in these places 

 probably as a recent introduction. 



The Mexican cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) crossed the Rio 

 Grande river and appeared in Brownsville, Texas, about 1892, since 

 when it has spread over eastern Texas and into Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 Alabama and Arkansas. Advancing as it does at the rate of fifty miles a 

 year, the insect would require but fifteen or eighteen years to cover 

 the entire cotton belt. The beetle hibernates and lays its eggs in the 

 cotton bolls; these are injured both by the larva feeding within and by 



