SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
a 
parts of Texas, cotton-growing has been replaced by peanut-growing, 
and the mills left vacant on account of the want of seed for crushing, 
because of the havoe wrought by the weevil, are once more producing 
oil, and an annual value of £13,000,000 has been added to the production 
of Texas. The once-despised peanut yields 50 per cent. of oil. 
_ At the present time there are about fifty-four insects known to 
attack the boll weevil. The predatory ones simply cut into the cotton 
squares and devour the young stages of the weevil, and, in some cases, 
the adult.~ Ants (e.g., Solenopsis geminata) are most numerous in this 
class. Ground beetles, in both the adult and larval stages, are also 
effective. The American species are numerous, and the -paradites © 
include many Hymenoptera, especially the Chalcid order, e.g., species 
of Catolaccus, Burytoma, and Microdontomerus. ‘There are’ also_ 
Tachinids and many Braconids. The methods of collecting, propa- 
gating, and distributing to places where the species are either absent 
or small in numbers, and the elimination of related weevils by the 
destruction of their food plants in or about the cotton fields, thereby 
forcing the parasites to transfer their attention to the boll weevil, have © 
been adopted with good results. Under the plan of elimination of 
related weevils the case of Anthonomus albopilosus may be cited. This 
weevil confines its attack to a species of Croton, a weed that is readily 
controlled, and the beetlé is parasitized by three different insects which 
will also attack the boll weevil. By mowing the weed at the proper time 
the Croton weevil largely perishes for want of food, and its parasites 
are forced to turn to the cotton boll weevil or else perish. 
* Australia, with her rich insect fauna, has already provided many — 
beneficial insects for other countries. There are numerous directions 
in which these same friendly insects can be utilized with advantage 
in our own land. The biological methods of control might be greatly 
extended to bring under subjection, not only the pests of the agricul- 
turists, but also insects concerned in the spread of diseases. It is the 
. American’s boast (Ball; J. Ee. Ent. 12: 24) that yellow fever no longer 
exists under the Stars and Stripes; that the bubonic plague—the triple 
alliance of the rat, the flea, and the bacillus—has been routed out; that 
scabies, the scourge of the western range, has practically disappeared 
as a menace to the sheep industry. He further claims that the Cottony 
Cushion Scale has been subjugated, and Gipsy and Brown-tail Moths 
compelled to entrench. The Pink Boll Worm is now in retreat, and the 
Texas tick has been pushed southward towards the Gulf, and will 
eventually disappear. The spirit of conquest is in the air. Such achieve- 
ments have been notable, and, no doubt, will be followed by others 
equally as great. A plan of storing cotton in advance, and refraining ~ 
from growing for a season, has been proposed for cleaning up entire 
regions in a single year. Dr. Pierce has produced a manual of danger- 
ous insects occurring in foreign countries and which have not yet 
‘reached the United States of America. The list includes 2,500 different 
kinds of insect pests, any one of which might, if introduced, cause 
untold losses. California spends £1,000,000 annually in controlling 
about a dozen insects in less than 1,000,000 acres of orchard. So 
- When we consider that the majority of our injurious insects are 
foreign invaders, or, as we say, are exotic, and that many more of the 
554 
” 
