28o 
by  aphis,  while  awaiting  effective  attack  by  their  parasites  (an 
ultimate  certainty),  when  an  application  of  soap  solution  would 
kill  all  the  aphis  on  his  trees  at  one  fell  swoop.  The  aphis- 
destroying  insects  are  in  this  case  useful  where  artificial  battle 
is  incompatible  with  circumstances,  as  inaccessibility,  laxity  or 
poverty  of  owner,  to  reduce  the  numbers  that  would  migrate 
to  the  cleansed  area.  No  insect,  native  or  foreign,  is  anywhere 
destructive  without  suffering  from  attacks  by  some  enemies. 
To  the  immediate  relief  of  the  threatened  crop  we  must  bring 
either  its  depredator’s  enemies  or  insecticides.  The  latter 
must  be  used  if  practicable  until  the  former  be  found.  Natural 
enemies  are  preferable  and  always  worth  searching  whenever 
circumstances  permit.  That  the  work  of  introduction  of  our 
insect  friends  from  foreign  lands  is  beset  with  a certain  amount 
of  risk  and  should  never  he  undertaken  by  others  than  competent 
entomologists  goes  without  saying.  But  in  the  light  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  with  direct  importation  of  useful  in- 
sects here  and  abroad  it  seems  utter  folly  to  attempt  to  mis- 
represent or  discredit  it.  Thus,  although  Dr.  Marchal’s 
memoir  was  published  in  1908  (Popular  Science  Monthly, 
April  and  May),  and  he  speaks  of  the  Koebele  and  Perkins 
expedition  to  Australia  in  quest  of  parasites  of  Perkinsiella 
saccharicida,  he  does  not  give  the  brilliant  result  of  that  ex- 
pedition ! Less  pardonable  still  is  Mr.  Froggatt’s  belittling 
account  of  the  result  of  this  expedition.  Mr.  Froggatt  is  the 
eminent  Australian  entomologist  who,  commissioned  by  four 
Australian  States  to  investigate  principally  fruit  fly  enemies 
and  remedies,  spent  about  a month  in  our  midst  about  two 
years  ago  on  his  way  around  the  world.  For  the  workers 
directly  engaged  in  the  work  of  introducing,  breeding  and  dis- 
tributing beneficial  insects,  for  the  scientists  and  businessmen 
to  whose  attention  whether  in  a scientific  or  commercial  way 
the  work  of  these  insect  friends  is  brought  daily, — for  these 
people  Mr.  Froggatt  had  little  time  to  spare.  Such  attitude 
presaged  not  only  the  trend  of  his  forthcoming  report  but 
also  reflected  the  prejudiced  frame  of  mind  in  which  he  must 
have  set  out  on  his  expedition,  unscientific  as  it  would  seem. 
Mr.  Froggatt’s  report  on  entomological  work  in  Hawaii  is  set 
forth  in  his  preliminary  letters  published  in  the  Agricultural 
Journals  of  the  States  he  represented,  and  his  final  report 
appears  somewhat  more  fully  in  a special  publication  received 
a short  -time  ago. 
To  correct  Mr.  Froggatt’s  evident  errors  we  reproduce  be- 
low a note  from  a recent  number  of  the  Hawaiian  Planters’ 
Monthly,  also  quote  the  major  portion  of  a paper  recently  pub- 
lished by  the  eminent  Italian  scientist,  Dr.  F.  Silvestri,  which 
has  direct  bearing  on  our  entomological  work  and  method. 
Dr.  Silvestri  spent  also  about  a month  with  us  about  a year 
ago  and  embodies  his  observations  in  this  paper.  We  took 
