ENTOMOLOGY.
ITS RELATION TO INDUSTRY. A striking exemplification of the value of the study of entomology to industry was given by Dr. Tillyard in his lecture at Palmerston North. In the Hawaiian Islands, where the sugar industry had been, threatened with extinction by the ravages of a certain grub, the owners of the sugar plantations had commissioned a party of entomologists to travel the world and find an insect that would kill pie grub without destroying the plant. Twenty thousand dollars were placed at the disposal of the scientists, and after long and weary travel and research the party had found in the Philippine Islands a little wasp which complied with the conditions'. Quantities of these wasps had been distributed throughout the Hawaiian plantations, and in less than two years the grubs had been wiped out. It was: a fact, stated the speaker, that the wasp was now dying, as there was nothing left for it to live on. By this expenditure of 20.000 dollars a loss of revenue of three or four millions was saved annually.
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Bibliographic details
Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1282, 17 August 1922, Page 7
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177ENTOMOLOGY. Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1282, 17 August 1922, Page 7
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