366 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Icerya purchasi having been at the Cape already for some years a great 

 subject of alarm, the Secretary of Agriculture, at Capetown, made an 

 effort to secure Novius cardinalis from Australia and from New 

 Zealand, but the correspondents to whom he wrote had not been able 

 to collect a sufficient number to make a sending, and a demand was 

 made upon the Department of Agriculture of the United States. Fol- 

 lowing the year 1891 an ample provision of larvae and pupa? was sent 

 from California to the Cape. But on account of the length of the 

 voyage, no living specimens arrived. At the end of the same year, 

 Mr. Thomas Low, member of the Legislative Assembly of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, went to the United States, charged by his government with 

 a mission connected with different agricultural questions, and notably 

 to secure the sending of Novius cardinalis. He procured three boxes 

 full of this insect, and left New York the twenty-third of December, 

 1891. One of these boxes was placed in the ice-box of the steamer. He 

 kept the two others in his cabin, feeding the Novius regularly during the 

 journey with Icerya. The three lots, including those preserved in the 

 ice-box, arrived in perfect condition, and on the twenty-ninth of Jan- 

 uary were placed in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture of the 

 Cape. 



The insects were then utilized in the following way : a small number 

 were placed in the open air upon an infested tree in the botanical gar- 

 den at Capetown; but the majority were used for rearings in captivity. 

 Some were placed upon an infested orange tree which was surrounded 

 by a great wire-gauze cage, while others taken to a different locality 

 were placed in a sort of glass house constructed around the orange 

 tree, and similar to those used in California for the same purpose. 



The efforts destined to naturalize Novius cardinalis in South Africa 

 were reinforced about the end of 1892 by a new sending coming from 

 Australia, and sent by Koebele, who was then on a mission to that 

 country. 



To-day the Novius is perfectly naturalized at the Cape. In some 

 spots which are particularly exposed to cold and where the winter is 

 very vigorous, they succumb to the low temperature, and the Ento- 

 mological Service is obliged to frequently renew the colonies. This, 

 however, is exceptional, and almost everywhere the Novius, perfectly 

 acclimatized, holds the Icerya in check so efficaciously that since several 

 years they have not worried about it. 



Icerya wgyptiaca and Novius cardinalis, in Egypt. — About the same 

 period several attempts were made to introduce Novius cardinalis from 

 California into Egypt, not to fight Icerya purcliasi, but an allied spe- 

 cies, Icerya cegyptiaca, which is of unknown origin and for several 

 years had been found in the gardens of Alexandria, where it did great 

 damage to the oranges, lemons and figs. The first attempts failed on 

 account of the length of the voyage, but a new attempt made about the 



