THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 661 



duction of the Vedalia from Australia, and which saved to California 

 the great citrus industry. 



Comparatively speaking, there are very few persons in the State at 

 the present time who witnessed the downfall of the orange and lemon 

 groves under the attack of the cottony cushion scale {leery a purchasi) 

 from 1885 to 1887, and it might be of interest to the present-day 

 readers to again publish what the Los Angeles poet, Mr. Kercheval, 

 once wrote about the ravages of the cottony cushion scale : 



"More deadly than the hordes of Goths and Huns that came to plow 

 Rome and harrow Italy, came the countless legions of Icerya, and 

 shriveled foliage and hare and Masted houghs everywhere told of their 

 resistless and ruthless march. No watchfidness or vigilance coidd 

 guard against their attacks, or turn them from their victorious course. 

 Then in the deep night of our despair came a miracle and relief. As 

 silent and noiseless as came the Angel of Death to smite the Assyrians 

 beleaguering God's chosen people so came the Vedalia to our aid, and 

 like Sennacherib's countless hosts, the cottony cushion legions, almost 

 in a night, melted away and were no more. What a vast army of men 

 ■and millions of dollars coidd not have perforyned in years, a mere hand- 

 fid of Australian ladyhugs has virtually accomplished in a few weeks, 

 and even to us, who have watched their work most closely, it seems 

 utterly incomprehensible, and almost beyond belief." 



That there exists in the Orient the various scale insects which are 

 such serious pests in some sections of this State to citrus culture has 

 been proved beyond question, and not a single species is a pest in that 

 region — the red, purple, black scale and the citrus mealy bugs all being 

 held in complete subjection by natural checks — and there is no good 

 reason why we should not be able to transplant and establish some, if 

 not all, of these natural checks into this State by a man of Mr. Smith's 

 abilitv. — George Compere. 



A NEW PARASITE OF THE BLACK SCALE. 



The importance of a para.site of the black scale, Saissetia olece Bern., 

 which will destroy the immature form, can not be overestimated. 



Scutellista cyanea, the egg parasite of the black scale, which is so 

 common, does not hold the pest in check for two main reasons: first, 

 that the larva of the parasite reaches maturity in many cases without 

 destroying all the eggs of the host, thus permitting enough of the 

 young scale to escape to reinfest an orchard, even if one hundred per 

 cent of the scaled showed the exit holes of the parasite ; second, that the 

 percentage of parasitism of the black scale by Scutellista cyanea rarely 

 averages above eighty or eighty-five per cent. From these facts it can 

 be easily seen why the black scale remains a pest year after year in 

 our groves. Also, the percentages of parasitism is lessened by other 

 factors, as secondary parasites, humidity, temperature, etc. Moreover, 

 the efficiency of the Scutellista can only be judged by its capacity in 

 reducing the progeny of the scale. The young scales hatch and will 

 cause great injury to the host by sucking the sap and will have secreted 

 all the honey-dew on which the black smut lives before the parasite 

 has its inning. 



