44 
PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 
punctured by a fly." The statement that nature controls the 
destructive fruit flies in India he opposes, as a result of his own 
observations in India. He does not contend that this work has not 
a great practical value, but insists that it should be done by trained 
entomologists, and that full information of the habits and life his- 
tories of both the pests and their parasites should be understood 
before liberation is attempted. As already stated, he especially 
deprecates premature claims, and points out that in New South 
Wales the passage of the very necessary vegetation diseases bill was 
delayed for some years by the outcry "Why should we be made to 
clean up our orchards and spend money, when the department can 
send out to other countries and get us parasites that will do all that 
is needed?" In conclusion he states: 
Let the whole question be judged on its results. Allow that one or two experiments 
have shown perfect results; yet because mealy bugs or scale insects in a restricted 
locality have once or twice been destroyed by parasites, that can be no reason why 
the parasite cure alone should be forced upon anyone. Its admirers should be 
perfectly honest; and if a friendly introduced insect from which, rightly or wrongly, 
great things had been expected turns out upon further trial to be a failure, they should 
say so; and they should never proclaim results for a parasite till those results have 
actually been proved in its adopted country, for the wisest can never be sure of the 
results of any experiment. Economic entomology is a great commercial science, 
and those at work for its far-reaching interests could do it no greater harm than by 
misleading or unproved statements. 
Other Work of this Kind. 
Reference has already been made to the importations of Prospal- 
tella berlesei into Italy to attack the destructive mulberry scale, 
Diaspis pentagona, through cooperative arrangements between the 
senior author and Prof. Berlese, of Florence. Prof. Berlese has been 
successful in establishing the species, and believes that it is best to rely 
upon this species only, and not to attempt to introduce the predatory 
enemies of the scale, his idea being that coccinellids will feed indis- 
criminately upon parasitized and unparasitized scales and that thus 
the Prospaltella will not have a chance to multiply to its limit. The 
contrary view is taken by Prof. Silvestri, at Portici, in the south of 
Italy, and he has been making every effort to introduce from all parts 
of the world all of the enemies, whether parasitic or predatory, of the 
mulberry scale. He has brought over and has had breeding in his 
laboratory at Portici, as well as in an experimental olive orchard 
southeasl of Naples, a number of species of Coccinellidse brought from 
differenl parts of the world. At his request, in May, 1910, the senior 
author carried from Washington a box containing possibly 200 living 
specimens of Microweisia misella Lec. and a few specimens of (Jhilo- 
COVU8 h 'mulnerus Muls. These were carefully packed with plenty of 
food in a small paper covered wooden box, approximating a 10-inch 
cube. He sailed from New York direct to Naples and, through the 
