134 ELEMENTARY STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE 



most destroyed. It had come to be considered that 

 the culture of oranges would have to be suspended, 

 owing to the highly destructive work of a certain 

 white scale known as the fluted scale. It was found 

 that the native home of this scale was in Aus- 

 tralia. It was observed that in Australia a certain 

 one of these ladybirds subsisted exclusively upon this 

 white scale. A force of men captured a large number 

 of the ladybirds, brought them to California, and 

 distributed them among the orange groves. The 

 result was that in a few years the scale had almost en- 

 tirely disappeared, and to-day it can be found only in 

 very limited numbers in any place in the State. This 

 condition of affairs is due wholly to the active and per- 

 sistent work of this little ladybird. Xot only has this 

 same insect made orange industries profitable in Cali- 

 fornia, but it has been introduced into Portugal, where 

 it is doing equally good work for the orange groves of 

 that country. 



Then there are those beetles which we commonly 

 call ground-beetles (p. 277), always to be found on the 

 ground, some of them of good size and some of them of 

 smaller sizes. They spend much of their time digging 

 about for the eggs of injurious insects, and many of them 

 subsist almost exclusively upon the grubs of injurious 

 forms. Frequently one of these allies meets its death 

 under the foot of some horticulturist who erroneously 

 believes it to be an enemy. 



OF THE FAEMER. 



Farm products are not exempt from the presence of 

 insects both beneficial and injurious. Should the 



