112 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



American flour is stored, without spreading 

 into the adjacent districts. 



A very minute yellow ant, however, {Myr- 

 mica molesta), which is often very troublesome 

 with us in houses, has, according to Frederick 

 Smith, "become generally distributed and na- 

 turalized '' in houses in England ; and Kirby 

 and Spence state more specifically, that " it has 

 become a great pest in many houses in Brigh- 

 ton, London and Liverpool, in some cases to so 

 great an extent as to cause the occupants to 

 leave them."* As to our Chinch Bug, our 

 Curculio, our Plum Gouger, our two principal 

 Apple-tree Borers, our Canker-worm, our Apple- 

 tree Tent-caterpillar, our Fall Web-worm, our 

 Peach-tree Borer, and our other indigenous 

 pests among the great Army of Bad Bugs, no- 

 body ever yet found a single one of them alive 

 and kicking on the other side of the Atlantic. 

 And with regard to Plants, the only two 

 American plants that we know to have become 

 so firmly established in Europe as to be a nui- 

 sance there, are an American aquatic plant, the 

 common Water-weed CAnacharis canadensis), 

 which has choked up many of the canals in 

 England, and our common Horse-weed, or 

 Mare's tail as it is called in the West, {JErigeron 

 canadense), which has spread from America 

 nearly over the whole world. 



Since then, it can be demonstrated by hard 

 dry facts, that American plants and insects do 

 not become naturalized in the Old World with 

 anything like the facility with which the plants 

 and insects of the Old World are every day be- 

 ing naturalized in America, there must be some 

 cause or other for this singular state of things. 

 What is that cause? It is, as we believe, a sim- 

 ple fact which is pretty generally recognized 

 now as ti-ue by modern naturalists, namely, that 

 the plants and animals of America belong, as a 

 general rule, to an old-fashioned creation, not 

 so highly improved and developed as the more 

 modernized creation which exists in Europe. 

 In other words, although this is popularly known 

 as the New World, it is in reality a much older 

 world than that which we are accustomed to 

 call the Old World. Consequently, our plants 

 and animals can no more stand their ground 

 against European competitors imported from 

 abroad, than the Red Indian has been able to 

 stand his ground against the White Caucasian 

 Race. On the other hand, if by chance an Amer- 

 ican plant or an American animal finds its way 

 into Europe, it can, as a general rule, no more 

 stand its ground there against its European 



competitors, than a colony of Red Indians could 

 stand their ground in England, even if you gave 

 them a whole county of land and an ample sup- 

 ply of stock, tools, and provisions to begin with. 

 For throughout Animated Nature, as has been 

 conclusively shown by Charles Darwin, there is 

 a continual struggle for existence, the stronger 

 and more favorably organized species over- 

 powering and starving out from time to time 

 their less vigorous and less favorably organized 

 competitors. Hence it is as hopeless a task for a 

 poor puny old-fashioned American bug to con- 

 tend against a strong energetic highly-developed 

 European bug, as it would be for a fleet of old- 

 fashioned wooden ships to fight against a fleet 

 of our modern iron-clads. 



Let not " Young America," however, be al- 

 together discouraged and disgusted at hearing, 

 that our Animal and Vegetable Creation is more 

 old-fashioned than that of what is commonly 

 known as the Old World. The oldest geologi- 

 cal formations, in which the remains ot Mam- 

 mals occur, contain the remains of such mam- 

 mals exclusively (Marsupia/ea) as bring forth 

 their young only partially developed, and carry 

 those young about with them in a pouch, till 

 the day of complete development and physical 

 " second birth " arrives. In America we have 

 a single genus — the Opossums— that belongs to 

 this antediluvian type. In the three ancient 

 continents they have absolutely none at all. 

 But if in this respect America is more old-fash- 

 ioned than Europe, Australia is still more old- 

 fashioned than America; for there almost all 

 their mammals possess this remarkable peculiar- 

 it}'; so that if the American creation is some- 

 what old-fogyish, that of Australia is the very 

 concentrated essence of old-fogyism itself. Con- 

 sequently, if Europe crows over us as alto- 

 gether " behiiul the times," " Young America " 

 can take its revenge by crowing over Australia, 

 as the land of the Kangaroo and the Wombat 

 and other such exploded absurdities of the 

 Mesozoic epochs. 



S^Now is tlie time for all those whose sub- 

 scriptions expire with the first of this year, to 

 renew. Those who appi-eciate our efforts 

 should strive to send along with their own, the 

 name of some one or other of their neighbors. 

 The eflTort costs nothing, and besides that satis- 

 faction which every right-minded man feels iu 

 imparting to others useful knowledge, there is 

 the reward which comes of having careful 

 neighbors who fight their own insect enemies, 

 and thus make it easier for you to subdue 

 yours. 



