LXXXIT REPOKT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



erable, and to get them established in this countr}- will demand the 

 careful cooperation of agents or interested individuals on the other side. 



The black scale of the orange is the most destructive, perhaps, of all 

 the orange pests in California, and the South African parasite of this 

 scale insect, which we have been endeavoring to establish in California 

 for the last year or two, still gives promise of ultimately becoming a 

 fixture and doing the good service in our Western orange districts 

 which it now does in South Africa and in ltah^ The histor}^ of this 

 importation was given in my report of last year. A recent letter 

 from Mr. Alexander Craw, who is looking out for this experiment in 

 California, reports that the parasite is breeding abundantly. With a 

 beginning of only two female insects kept in captivit}^, he had sent out 

 to different localities up to July of this year (1902) 25 colonies. 



The very important European parasite of the larger scale insects 

 such as the Lecaniums and mealy bugs {Erastria scitula) seems on the 

 way to be successfully established in California. It is believed that 

 the introduction of this insect into our citrus and olive districts will be 

 of the greatest advantage to the growers of these fruits. With the 

 cooperation of Mr. Craw, the horticultural quarantine officer, and Mr. 

 Ehrhorn, of Santa Clara, these insects have already been liberated in 

 Santa Clara, Los Angeles, and Niles, Cal., and the outcome of this 

 effort at the introduction of a useful insect will be watched with 

 interest, and the utmost care will be taken to bring it to a successful 

 issue. 



Another foreign insect promising great usefulness in a different 

 direction, imported during the past year, is the European ladybird 

 i^Coccinella septeinpunctatcL) sent from Hungary through the kindness 

 of Professor Sajo. These lad3^birds feed on plant lice, and should be 

 an efficient aid in controlling the destructive insects of this class which 

 infest cotton, peas, melons, and other vegetables, and the fruits. 

 Some of these insects have been sent to Mr. Craw, in California, where 

 they give promise of becoming established; others to various Eastern 

 experiment station entomologists, and they have also been colonized 

 in the District of Columbia. Another ladybird {Lets conformis)^ a 

 plant-lice feeder also, was imported from Ital}" and liberated in Cali- 

 fornia. A further importation of this species may be necessary to 

 effect its establishment here. 



This entomological work of an international character has not been 

 altogether one-sided. In other words, while we have been importing 

 foreign insects and have been receiving a good deal of gratuitous assist- 

 ance by entomologists al)road in this work, we have paid our debts, to a 

 certain extent, by sending to foreign countries some of our beneficial 

 insects. The extraordinary success in preventing damage from the 

 white scale, once a great orange pest in California, by the introduc- 

 tion of the Australian ladybird, has been duplicated, as made evident 



