336 ENTOMOLOGY 



threatened to put an end to the cultivation of citrus trees in California. 

 This disaster was averted by the importation from Australia, in 1888, of 

 a native enemy of the scale, namely, the lady-bird beetle Novius (Vedalia) 

 cardinalis, which, in less than eighteen months after its introduction into 

 California, subjugated the noxious scale insect. The United States has 

 since sent Novius to South Africa, Egypt and Portugal with similar bene- 

 ficial results. 



Based upon the foundation laid by Riley, the work of the Division 

 (now the Bureau) of Entomology has steadily progressed, under the 

 leadership of Dr. Leland O. Howard. With a comprehensive and firm 

 grasp of his subject, alert to discover and develop new possibilities, ener- 

 getic and resourceful in management, Dr. Howard has brought the 

 government work in applied entomology to its present position of com- 

 manding importance. Admirably organized, the Bureau now requires 

 the services of more than six hundred people, and the total output of 

 the Division and the Bureau at this writing amounts to one hundred 

 and forty-eight bulletins and one hundred and seventy-one circulars. 



The Department of Agriculture succeeded in starting a new and im- 

 portant industry in California the culture of the Smyrna fig. The su- 

 perior flavor of this variety is due to the presence of ripe seeds, in other 

 words, to fertilization, and for this it is necessary for pollen of the wild 

 fig, or "caprifig, " to be transferred to the flowers of the Smyrna fig. 

 Normally this pollination, or "caprification," is dependent upon the ser- 

 vices of a minute chalcid, Blasto phaga grossorum, which develops in the 

 gall-like flowers of the caprifig. The female insect, which in this excep- 

 tional instance is winged while the male is not, emerges from the gall 

 covered with pollen, enters the young flowers of the Smyrna fig to ovi- 

 posit, and incidentally pollenizes them. 



After many discouraging attempts, Blasto phaga, imported from 

 Algeria, has now been established in California, and the new industry 

 is developing rapidly. 



Canada. The development of economic entomology in Canada 

 was due largely to the efforts of the late Dr. James Fletcher, of the Do- 

 minion Experimental Farms, Ottawa, whose annual reports and other 

 writings were of exceptional value. His work was furthered in every 

 way by the "eminent director of the experimental farms system, Dr. 

 William Saunders, himself a pioneer in economic entomology in Canada 

 and the author of one of the most valuable treatises upon the subject 

 that has ever been published in America." Dr. Fletcher was succeeded 



