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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 675 



a large part of their European geographic 

 range ; more than forty species of para- 

 sites have thus been brought over, bred 

 and liberated; several of them have cer- 

 tainly established themselves in New Eng- 

 land, and there seems every reason to be- 

 lieve that speedy success will be reached. 

 The single negative chance that native 

 hyper-parasites will interfere can not be 

 guarded against, and even should such 

 species attack the imported parasites, it 

 will probably not be long before a condi- 

 tion of more or less stable equilibrium 

 among the host insects, the primary para- 

 sites and the hyper-parasites will have 

 been reached. Every possible effort has 

 been, and is being made, to prevent the 

 escape in this country of the European 

 hyper-parasites. This work is now going 

 on in a laboratory at North Saugus, near 

 Boston, and as it is by far the largest ex- 

 periment of the kind ever tried in the his- 

 tory of the world, it will doubtless be in- 

 teresting to the members of the section of 

 economic zoology to visit this laboratory 

 during the present week and examine the 

 details and methods used. The speaker, 

 who has special charge of this work, will 

 be greatly indebted to members of the sec- 

 tion for suggestions which they may make 

 after an examination of the laboratory, 

 which may assist in making the work more 

 efficient. 



Another almost unforeseen development 

 in economic entomology, in the period 

 under consideration, and one of very great 

 interest and importance, has been the 

 spread '.of the Mexican cotton boll weevil 

 {Anthonomus grandis) in the United 

 States. It has presented an enormous 

 problem in economic zoology ; the enormous 

 damage it has done, and the fears it has 

 aroused in other cotton-growing countries, 

 have threatened a disturbance in the bal- 

 ance of trade for the entire world. At 

 the time of the former address, in August, 



1894, this insect had just made its appear- 

 ance across the Rio Grande in the vicinity 

 of Brownsville, Texas. Advancing year 

 by year since then to the north and to the 

 east, spreading at an average rate of per- 

 haps seventy-five miles annually, it has now 

 reached Arkansas and the Indian territory 

 on the north, and the valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi River on the east. Many millions 

 of dollars have been lost each year by the 

 ravages of this insect. During the seasons 

 of its greatest abundance, this annual 

 damage has been estimated at from $15,- 

 000,000 to $30,000,000. In this spread we 

 see one of the most striking instances of 

 the value of scientific prediction, and the 

 value of scientific advice in practical mat- 

 ters. At the beginning of its spread, the 

 whole situation, as developed later, was pre- 

 dicted; and by a very small expenditure 

 of money the insect could have been held 

 in check and, in fact, exterminated easily. 

 It occurred in a circumscribed region in 

 M'hich the value of the cotton production 

 was not great, and the passage of a law by 

 the Texas legislature to enforce measures, 

 which could not have resulted in an ex- 

 pense of more than $20,000 or $30,000 to 

 the state, would have entirely prevented 

 the loss which has resulted from the ignor- 

 ing of these recommendations — the recom- 

 mendations were not only made by the 

 Bureau of Entomology of the United 

 States, but a bill was drafted in that office, 

 the governor of the state recommended its 

 passage in that session of the legislature; 

 but with fatal economy, and with the fatal 

 ignorance of the value of expert advice, 

 the legislature failed to pass the law, and 

 the insect steadily spread. Large sums of 

 money have been spent by the general gov- 

 ernment in the investigation of all the 

 factors connected with the life history, 

 habits, method of dispersion and methods 

 of control, and large sums have also been 

 spent in actual field demonstrations upon 



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