68o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it, kept on increasing, and some ten years ago I felt that the work 

 of this particular species and of others which seriously affected 

 the fruit-growing interests of southern California, justified the 

 establishment of agencies there. Up to this time no special en- 

 tomological efforts have been made by the Government on behalf 

 of the fruit-growers of the Pacific coast. Through agents sta- 

 tioned the one at Los Angeles, the other at Alameda a course of 

 elaborate experiments was undertaken as to the best means of 

 treating the insects affecting the orange there, and more partic- 

 ularly this fluted or cottony-cushion scale. During the prog- 

 ress of these investigations, however, the fact impressed itself 

 upon my mind that we had here an excellent opportunity of call- 

 ing to our aid its own natural enemies ; for while there were at 

 first some doubts as to the origin of this icerya, the question was 

 finally settled to my satisfaction that it was of Australian origin, 

 that in its native home it was not a serious pest, but was kept 

 subdued by natural checks. 



A clause in the bill appropriating for the division of ento- 

 mology prohibited the sending of agents abroad and prevented at 

 the time independent action by the Department of Agriculture ; 

 but with the co-operation of the Department of State an arrange- 

 ment was finally made by the Hon. Frank McCoppin, United 

 States Commissioner to the Melbourne Exposition, whereby two 

 agents of the Division of Entomology were sent to Australia, one 

 of them specially charged with the study and importation of the 

 natural enemies of this insect. 



It was thus that Mr. Albert Koebele, in the fall of 1888, wa^ 

 sent to Australia for this special purpose. The history of Mr. 

 Koebele's efforts has been detailed from time to time in Govern- 

 ment publications and in the press, especially that of California. 

 It suffices to state that a number of living enemies, both parasitic 

 and predaceous, were successfully imported, but that one of them 

 ( Vedalia cardinalis) proved so effective as to throw the others 

 entirely into the shade and render their services really unneces- 

 sshYj. It has so far not been known to prey upon any other in- 

 sect, and it breeds with surprising rapidity, occupying less than 

 thirty days from the laying of the eggs until the adults again ap- 

 pear. These facts account for its exceptionally rapid work, for in 

 point of fact within a year and a half of its first introduction it 

 had practically cleared off the fluted scale throughout the in- 

 fested region. The expressions of two well-known parties may be 

 quoted here to illustrate the general verdict. Prof. W. A. Henry, 

 Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, who 

 visited California in 1889, reported that the work of the vedalia 

 was " the finest illustration possible of the value of the depart- 

 ment to give the people aid in time of distress, and the distress 



