national program with respect to them than to 
maintain inflexible and independent research 
roles for universities, governments, and in- 
dustries; problems that might force us to share 
with sister departments or other countries the 
mammoth task of conducting essential investi- 
gations. Such problems are not likely to involve 
entire disciplines or fields of endeavor, such 
as all entomology or all agriculture, but rather 
parts of several disciplines and of several 
sectors of society. 
Many facets of the pest-control problem fit 
these stipulations. It is within this broader 
context that we can expect interdisciplinary 
research in pest control to increase. The 
interdisciplinary approach is simply the mark 
of maturity. It is our new frontier and we must 
meet its challenge or retard progress. 
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(2) Platt, R, B,, W. D, Billings, D, M, Gates, C, E, 
Olmsted, R, E, Shanks, and J, R, Tester, 1964, 
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Il, : 
REQUIREMENTS FOR INSECTICIDES OF THE FUTURE 
R, L. Metcalf, Department of Entomology, 
University of California, Riverside 
The control of insect pests with chemicals 
has a relatively short history. A tea from 
powdered tobacco was used to destroy plant 
lice in 1763, crushed Chrysanthemum flowers, 
containing the pyrethrins, were usedtocontrol 
fleas and lice in about 1800, and ground roots 
of Derris were used against leaf-eating cater- 
pillars in 1848. The first synthetic insecticide 
was paris green or copper acetoarsenite ap- 
plied to control the Colorado potato beetle in 
about 1865, Potassium dinitro-o-cresylate was 
marketed as an insecticide in Germany in 1892, 
and the appearance of f-butoxy-f'-thio- 
cyanodiethyl ether in 1932 marked the beginning 
of the era of large-volume use of synthetic 
organic pesticides. During the next three 
decades more than 100 insecticides and acari- 
cides have become commercial items, and 
annual sales in the United States now exceed 
$200 million. 
Insecticides have become an indispensable 
adjunct of modern agriculture, providing un- 
blemished fruits and vegetables and often ma- 
terially increasing crop yields. Through such 
innovations as seed treatments, soil fumiga- 
tions, and animal systemics, they have become 
an integral part of mechanized crop production. 
In the area of public health, insecticides have 
virtually eliminated the horrors of plague, 
typhus, yellow fever, and malaria, and they 
provide the basic weapons for the control of 
encephalitides and filariasis. The householder 
