384 
fruits. In thirty-five or more States and 
Territories, and in Canada, the insect is 
recognized as a scourge. The invasion has 
been met by the active antagonism of eco- 
nomic entomologists, State Legislatures and 
fruitgrowers. A dozen or more States have 
passed laws providing for the inspection 
of nursery stock and fruits brought into 
the State, and for the destruction of stock 
found to be infested by the scale. The life 
history of the insect has been carefully 
studied, the effects of new climatic and top- 
ographic environment noted, and new rem- 
edies devised and tested. The attention 
this tiny degenerate insect has received puts 
it in that notorious list of insect scourges 
of the first class which includes the chinch 
bug, the Hessian fly, the Colorado potato 
beetle, the codlin moth and other familiar 
pests. 
It is recognized more clearly to-day than 
ever before, how all important in keeping 
insect pests in check are their natural ene- 
mies, predaceous and parasitic, and of how 
much less avail in most instances are the 
artificial defenses and offenses which man 
has devised. The natural remedies are im- 
mensely more effective than the artificial 
remedies. Indeed so extreme a view of the 
whole matter of insect-fighting is held by 
some entomologists that they openly com- 
mend a ‘laissez-faire’ policy in economic 
entomology except as regards purely local- 
ized efforts. My own feeling is that of 
much sympathy with this reaction against 
the multiplied, expensive and oftentimes 
conspicuously ineffective artificial panaceas. 
On the other hand, where the economic en- 
tomologist bases his war strategy on a thor- 
ough study of the life history and ecology 
of the particular insect enemy engaged 
with, and where he seeks primarily to dis- 
cover natural aids for his attacks, where 
he thinks first of encouraging and strength- 
ening the natural defenses of the attacked 
and of reenforcing the natural barriers to 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 323. 
the spread and increase of the attacking 
pest, he is, it seems to me, on the way to 
do the best work for the suffering orchard 
or grain field. 
One of the promising lines of work of 
this kind is the search for and the importa- 
tion and propagation of the natural ene- 
mies (usually predaceous or parasitic in- 
sects) of introduced foreign pests. The too 
successful naturalization of these foreigners 
is in most instances due, presumably, to 
the fact that they come to us unaccom- 
panied by their natural native enemies. 
Free from the principal check to their in- 
crease, they multiply and spread with 
alarming rapidity (providing the conditions 
of climate and topography permit), giving 
us a momentary glimpse of life uncon- 
trolled by the balance wheel of one phase 
of the struggle for existence. It is quite 
true that much that is ill-considered and 
imaginative has been spoken and written 
regarding the success of the importation of 
parasites. And the expectations of the un- 
informed, or rather of the falsely informed, 
are hardly likely to be metsoon. But there 
is an encouraging residuum of fact left after 
the froth and bubble have been blown from 
the California stories. The Vedalia has 
really eaten up about all the cottony cush- 
ion scale (Icerya); and some other im- 
ported lady-birds are really eating up a 
good many other scales. I believe that it 
is at least worth while to see if there is any 
hope of getting some active and competent 
lady-bird beetle to look after the San Jose 
scale. 
But to search for the native enemies of 
the San Jose scale it is necessary to know 
the nativity of the scale itself. And this 
is something as yet undetermined (unless, 
it has been determined by the investigation 
about to be written of). Without canvass- 
ing in detail opposing claims for the honor, 
it is sufficient to say that Japan and Cali- 
fornia are the two leading claimants in the 
