132 



Kow its advent in England, a century after it was brought to this 

 country, has caused a good deal of discussion, and while I was over there 

 last autumn I found that not only British agriculturists, but the British 

 public generally were intensely interested in the subject and quite 

 agitated as to the prospects in the future. 



Three points particularly interest the grain grower as well as scien- 

 tific men, viz, the date when the insect was actually imported into 

 England, the country it was introduced from, and the i^rosj^ects from 

 its work in the future. 



I had occasion to consider all of these x:)oints at some length in the 

 London Times for October 17 last, but in this connection have time only 

 to say that as to the first i>oint there is likely to be the same contro- 

 versy as there has been in reference to the periods of its importation 

 into America, and just as all the facts point to the latter event about 

 the time of the Eevolutionary war, so the evidence i^oints conclusively 

 to its very recent advent into England. One of the strongest oppo- 

 nents of the view that the species was imported into this country by 

 Hessians has been Dr. H. A. Hagen, of Cambridge, and though his 

 arguments have some weight from the historic side they are weak from 

 the biologic side, as they do not take into account the exceptional 

 tendency to belated or retarded development which the species exhibits 

 in the x^uparium state. 



There was no way of definitely ascertaining from what country the 

 insect was really introduced into England, but by a study of the pari- 

 sites which had so far been detected in England. Hence I was urged 

 while there last year to examine such parasites as had been reared 

 there. 



This material was submitted by Miss Ormerod, Professor Fream, Lord 

 Walsingham, Mr. O. E. Janson, Mr. Fred. Enock, Mr. F. M. Campbell, 

 and others who interested themselves in the subject and were anxious 

 for determinations. 



A study of these i)arasites enabled me to identify them as Plntygas- 

 ter minutus Lind., Semiotellus nkirlpes Lind., Eupelmns karschii Lind., 

 Merisus intermedins Lind., Tetrastielins Iiileyiljiud., Un)i/.sc(q)ns saltator 

 Lind., -D«6'wwsa senilis Hal.; and while the material that was placed 

 in my hands will require some little revision of a paper which I have 

 already published on the parasites of the species in America, yet they 

 are all essentially European and point unmistakably to the importation 

 to Engl and from the continent of Europe. The negative evidence, so far 

 as it goes, confirms this, because statistics show that from 2 to 3 per 

 cent, of the straw imported into England comes from America, and the 

 importation has not been made through the chief ports of entry of 

 American vessels, such as Liverpool. In fact the species has not yet 

 been found in Ireland or on the western coast of England, being con- 

 fined, as already remarked, to the east coast. 



In reference to the third point, viz, the future injury that is likely to 



