166 



we lack the intelligent unpaid agency which forms the feature of your reports and 

 which gives you what no reasouablj^ paid agency could accomplish. This is my great 

 difficulty: the Indian peasant knows nothing of insects or means to combat them, 

 and is too ignorant and careless to help. There is not one native ot India who knows 

 anything of natural history or cares for it or is likely to do so. 



Credit to whom Credit is due. — We are sorry to notice from the Garden 

 and Field (Adelaide, South Australia) for July, 188^, that Mr. F. S. 

 Crawford, to whom is due the discovery of LestopJionns iceryce, the 

 Dipterous parasite of the Fluted Scale, and who has taken so much 

 trouble to secure specimens to forward them to California and New 

 Zealand, is somewhat hurt by an exhibition of want of knowledge of 

 the facts on the part of a California i^aper. He quotes from the Cali- 

 fornia journal as follows : 



To Professor Coquillett, Mr. Wolfskill, and Mr. Craw great j)raise is due, for they 

 are in a fair way to do more for Southern California than has been accomplished in 

 many years. 



Following this, in his own words, he adds: • 



All honor, then, be to this patriotic trio, and personally let me express ray compli- 

 ments to the writer of the article, because until I read it I labored under the delusion 

 that I first discovered th 5 Dipteron, that I first suggested its introduction into Cali- 

 fornia and other countries afitlicted by the Icerya scourge, and that I have put myself 

 to some little and my friends to much greater trouble in collecting and forwarding 

 the Coccid hosts of these parasite flies — all of which is doubtless a mistake! 



We are very sorry that Mr. Crawford feels hurt about this matter, and 

 beg to assure him that it is but a specimen of a certain kind of Ameri- 

 can journalism for which, in all probability, no one of the three gentle- 

 men in question is in the least responsible. Mr. Crawford's claims upon 

 the gratitude of the California people are well known and abundantly 

 recognized. Our own part in this matter is equally ignored in the 

 article referred to. In our Eiverside address, in the spring of 1887, we 

 made use of the following words : 



It has doubtless occurred to many of you that it would be very desirable to intro- 

 duce from Australia such parasites as serve to keep this Fluted Scale in check in its 

 native land. We have a ready seen that there is one minute parasite which has, in 

 all probability, been brought over with it from Australia, and there is no question 

 but that it is very desirable to introduce any such of its enemies and parasites ascan 

 be introduced. This State — yes, even Los Angeles County — could well alford to ap. 

 propriate a couple of thousand dollars for no other purpose than the sending of an 

 expert to Australia to devote some months to the study of these parasites there and 

 to their artificial introduction here. 



Receiving through Miss Ormerod the first specimens of Lestophonus, 

 we requested Mr. Crawford to send specimens to Messrs. Coquillett and 

 Klee. We have recently learned that Mr. Klee also indei)endently 

 made the same request to Mr. Crawford after learning that such a i)ar- 

 asite existed. The California newspaper man \vas singularly unfortu- 



d 



I 



