462 Phylum Arthropoda 



tin salve boxes are well suited. The bottom of these boxes are covered 

 with two pieces of blotting paper that is moistened each day to maintain 

 the proper relative humidity. 



A fresh bean leaf is then placed in the box, and one newly hatched 

 larva is carefully laid on the leaf. Examination should be made each 

 day and fresh food or moisture added. For temperature studies, the 

 salve boxes are placed in constant temperature cabinets regulated to any 

 degree of heat required. 



At a constant temperature of 6o° F. the total length of time for de- 

 velopment from egg to adult will be about 83 days, while at 86° F. only 

 27 days are required. Ordinarily the larvae are bright yellow in color, 

 but at the lower temperatures the larvae assume a dark appearance. 



LINDORUS LOPHANTHAE* 



A common coccinellid predator of red scale is Lindorus lophanthae. 

 If fruit heavily infested with red scale is placed in a container the lar- 

 vae of Lindorus appear in numbers as soon as the minute scale insects, 

 which are usually present, increase in size. That larger larvae are not 

 found to be so plentiful on the fruit is probably due to the fact that the 

 young larvae are active and have a tendency to drop off or crawl on 

 to the limbs. 



When black scale eggs were glued to the fruit the larvae in the 3rd 

 and 4th instars seemed to prefer them to red scale. In order to obtain 

 oviposition records it was necessary to use black scale as a stimulus 

 for egg deposition. 



Mating occurs readily in confinement. When paired and placed in a 

 vial with an abundance of black scale eggs one female deposited among 

 the black scale eggs as many as 144 pearly white or yellowish eggs. 



Although Lindorus exhibited a fondness for black scale eggs it may 

 be reared successfully on them only after the second ecdysis. Newly 

 hatched larvae placed on black scale eggs suffered a heavy mortality 

 and the length of the 1st instar was three times that of those feeding 

 on red scale. Moreover, all of the 2nd stage larvae died with an abun- 

 dance of black scale present. 



Many larvae may be reared in a small container such as a petri dish 

 4 inches in diameter without a high degree of cannibalism. The writer 

 placed 120 larvae of all stages in such a container and reared all but 5%. 

 The pupal stage is most subject to injury by the larvae. 



M. E. D. 



♦Abstracted from an article in Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. 23:594, 1930, by Stanley E. 

 Flanders, University of California. 



