386 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



movement which finally resulted in sending Mr. Koebele to Australia 

 under the joint auspices of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture and the California State Board of Horticulture, and in the 

 subsequent discovery and introduction of Vedalia, the success of which 

 is known to all. It is interesting to note that it was this Dipterous 

 parasite now known as Cryptochcetum monoplilehi and not the Vedalia 

 that was the objective of Mr. Koebele 's mission to Australia, and that 

 the discovery of Vedalia was incidental to the search for and shipment 

 of Cryptochastum. It is a pleasure to record here that Dr. Riley was 

 correct in his statement made in 1889, that "the Lestophonus for the 

 present has been overshadowed by the Vedalia, but its importance has 

 not yet been appreciated." 



On receipt of the specimens of Cryptochaetum from Mr. Crawford, 

 through Miss Ormerod, the English entomologist, the officials of the 

 United States Division of Entomology immediately wrote to that gentle- 

 man, making the request that he send living material to the division 

 agent in Los Angeles, Mr. D. W. Coquillet, in order to attempt the 

 introduction of the species. Mr. Crawford generously had collected 

 and sent to Mr. Coquillet a quantity of Icerya infested with the para- 

 site. Material was also sent to Mr. Koebele at the same time. The 

 scales were placed in cages enclosing infested orange trees and the 

 parasites w^ere seen to issue, but oviposition was not observed and it 

 is not known whether the parasite was successfully established at this 

 time. 



It being evident to Dr. Riley that the chance for success would be 

 much greater if larger colonies of the parasite could be had, the move- 

 ment was then started which resulted in sending Mr. Koebele to Aus- 

 tralia for the purpose of securing large quantities of the parasite 

 material. In this he was very successful and 12,000 specimens were 

 forwarded to Mr. Coquillet in Los Angeles, who succeeded in getting 

 them established in the open. 



DV. Riley wrote in his report for 1888: 



"We fully expect to learn of the increase and rapid spread of 

 this new introduction as well as some of the predaceous species 

 which have been introduced, and to find that in a comparatively 

 few years the orange groves of southern California will be kept 

 measurably freed from the pernicious Fluted Scale without so 

 great an effort on the part of the growers or so great expense in 

 destroying it. That nature will, with the new conditions induced 

 by these new importations, come to the relief of the fruit grower 

 and that this interesting experiment will result in the ultimate 

 saving of untold millions to the people of the Pacific coast is our 

 sincere belief which we hope to live to see verified. ' ' 



Koebele continued the shipment of parasites from time to time and 

 large numbers were liberated in the orange groves from his sendings. 

 From these original colonies the parasites spread to various sections of 

 the state. 



DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE IN CALIFORNIA. 



While no extensive observations have been conducted on the distri- 

 bution of this parasite, it is known to occur in most of the citrus sections 

 inhabited by Icerya. It is common in Los Angeles, Orange, San 



