Changes in Faunæ due to Man's Agency

Abstract

PROF. HADDON'S interesting article in NATURE of January 28 certainly deserves serious attention. Probably few naturalists realise the rapid changes which are being brought aoout through the agency of man. The way in which the Coccidae (scale-insects) are carried from country to country is amazing; and with them go their hymenopterous parasites in many instances. Thus, in 1894, Mr. L. O. Howard described the chalcidid Homalopoda cristata from St. Vincent, W.I.; in 1896 I described Aspidiotus secretus—a coccid—from Japan. Later, in 1896, Mr. Howard was able to report that Mr. Green had bred his St. Vincent chalcidid from my Japanese coccid—in Ceylon ! Mr. Howard, in 1896, described another chalcidid, parasitic on scale-insects, from Ceylon; and the day he received the separate copies of his paper, he received the chalcidid from the Southern U.S. Aurivillius, in 1888, described a remarkable parasite of Coccidae bred by him in Sweden; already it is known also from two localities in the United States, and from Ceylon. As early as 1863, Prof. A. Costa described from Italy a remarkable genus of Chalcididae, after taking great pains to learn that it was unknown in Europe; but, as Mr. Howard has lately shown, it had been described (the very same species) in 1859 by Motschulsky from Ceylon, whence it had undoubtedly been accidentally introduced into Europe. Diaspis amygdali, a very destructive coccid, was described by Tryon in 1889 from Australia; already we knew it also from various localities in the Oriental, Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Nearctic and Neotropical regions! Very many other such cases might be cited, showing that there is great need for speedy investigation, before the data regarding the true habitats of these and other organisms become impossible of discovery, owing to the extermination of some species, and the dissemination of others.