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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which may be succinctly defined as the assemb- 

 ling in tracts of greater or less extent, of one 

 species of plant at the expense and exclusion of 

 others — causes the particular insects which feed 

 upon that plant, to multiply unduly, and we 

 have to use that same intelligence in subduing 

 these insects which we employ in producing 

 the artificial results which caused their increase. 

 In the normal state of things insects never in- 

 crease unduly ; but, on the contrary, always act 

 as Nature's most faithful servants, and accom- 

 plish a most important work in her economy. 

 Yet, for reasons explained above, they naturally 

 become our enemies, and we should sulTer from 

 the depredations of our indigenous species, even 

 though no foreign ones had been imported. But 

 we have altogether more than our share of these 

 insect depredators, and so truly is this the case, 

 that insects which attract univei'sal attention, 

 and are considered as very serious evils in Eu- 

 rope, would not be deemed worthy of notice in 

 this country. There, if they loose one-fifth of a 

 given crop, the whole community becomes 

 alarmed; but here the cultivator sometimes con- 

 siders himself tbrtunate if he secures the half ol 

 his crop from insect ravages, and each State 

 loses annually from fifty to sixty million dol- 

 lars from this cause alone, though but four 

 States have as yet made any attempt to pre- 

 vent this serious loss. In order to bring this 

 fact home to you, and to show why we sutfer 

 more than do our foreign brethren, I will read 

 a paper, which I have prepared for the Ameki- 

 CAN Entomologist upon •' Imported Insects 

 and Native Ameuicaa Insects." 



[This paper will be found in another part of 

 the present issue.] 



The theory advanced in the above paper, may 

 meet with some objectors, although I confi- 

 dently believe in the inference there stated of 

 the relative advancement and improvement of 

 the flora and fauna of the two continents. But 

 there is another reason why the insects which 

 are imported into this country multiply at a 

 prodigious rate, and soon acquire lierculean 

 power of doing harm, though they may never 

 have stepped beyond the limits of propriety in 

 their own native home— a reason too palpable 

 and evident to savor of the theoretical. It is, that 

 whenever an injurious insect is introduced in 

 our midst, as a general rule the particular par- 

 asite or parasites which kept it in check abroad, 

 are not introduced with it. In consequence, 

 the foreigners, unaccompanied by the usual 

 gens d'annes, throw ofl' all restraint and play 

 the deuce with our crops; just as the rats and 

 mice will take possession of, and overrun a 



house, if not restrained by human or by feline 

 agencies. 



Sometimes, as in the case of the Imported 

 Currant-worm, the noxious insects introduced 

 from the old world are attacked by native Amer- 

 ican parasites, but as I believe the parasites of 

 European nativity to be, as a rule, more 

 energetic and vigorous than our indigenous 

 ones, it would be advisable even in such a case, 

 to import in addition such species as prey upon 

 it in Europe. But in the case of the Wheat 

 Midge which has actually flourished among us 

 for almost half a century without a single para- 

 site of any kind whatever infesting it from one 

 end of the country to the other, it is sheer folly 

 and culpable shiftlessuess not to import among 

 us from the other side of the Atlantic some one 

 or all of the three difi"erent Chalcis flies which 

 are known to check it throughout all Europe. 

 And so with other insects which are known to 

 be unaccompanied with the jjarasites which 

 attack them abroad. Years and ) ears ago Dr. 

 Fitch demonstrated in print the policy of such 

 a step ; but bugs and bug-hunters are so very 

 generally the subject of festive ridicule among 

 the high and the low vulgar, that hitherto the 

 recommendation of the State Entomologist of 

 New York has met with no practical response. 



Now no one will fail to understand the force 

 of the old proverb already quoted, after listen- 

 ing to these facts. Let us profit by the expe- 

 rience of the past, and while battling with those 

 foes which are already in our midst, let us keep 

 a watchful eye, and be on our guard ready to 

 crush any new plague that may threaten us, 

 before it gets beyond control. Yes, but say 

 you, how is this to be accomplished? Can it 

 be done by the government? Yes, in some 

 cases ; as for instance in the importation of 

 parasites, government aid should be solicited. 

 If, in 1860, when the Asparagus Beetle (_Cno- 

 ceris asparagi, Linn.) was first introduced on 

 to Long Island, the Legislature of the State of 

 New York had taken proper action in tie 

 matter, the insect might have been stamped • 

 out of the island at the trivial expense of a few 

 hundred dollars, instead of being allowed to 

 multiply, as it did, to such an extent as to 

 occasion a dead loss of some fifty thousand 

 dollars in a single county, and of spreading 

 from the island into the adjoining country. 

 Quite recently a weevil (Bruchiis granarius) 

 which does immense damage to i)eas and beans 

 and some other plants in Europe, was intro- 

 duced into New York in some pods which a 

 certain gentleman presented to the New York 

 Farmers' Club, and if the proper steps are at 



