126 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. A. Sidney Olliff exhibited specimens of the cottony-cushion 

 or fluted scale (leery a purchem, Mask.) and a number of larvae 

 and perfect insects of Vedalia cardinalis, Muls., the predatory 

 lady-bird that was introduced into California last year by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of 

 keeping the former insect, which had been the cause of great 

 loss to orange-growers, in check. The lady-birds had been kindly 

 forwarded to him from Auckland, N.Z., by Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, 

 the Curator of the Auckland Museum, who states that the species 

 is at present (March 16th) engaged in clearing off a colony of 

 Icerya on a hedge of Kangaroo Acacia not far from his house. 

 Mr. Olliff said that Mr. A. Koebele states in his official report on 

 his mission to Australia ("Report of a Trip to Australia to 

 investigate the Natural Enemies of the Fluted Scale": Washington, 

 1890), that he had obtained the Vedalia at Adelaide and Mannum 

 in South Australia, and in Melbourne, and Sydney; but it was a 

 remarkable fact that the insect was not known to our most active 

 workers at the Coleoptera, and that it was not represented in any 

 well-known Australian collection. As the Icerya was very 

 common in many places near Sydney, Mr. Olliff hoped that 

 members would keep a look out for Vedalia cardinalis with a 

 view to reporting its occurrence to the Society. It was, he 

 thought, a matter for regret that we had not a more definite 

 knowledge of an insect whose introduction into the Californian 

 orange orchards, under the auspices of the U. S. Division of 

 Entomology, was likely to prove a land-mark in the history of 

 applied entomology.* 



* Specimens of Vedalia cardinalis were afterwards found by Mr. Olliff 

 in a collection of Sydney insects obtained by Mr. A. Lea, as reported at the 

 following meeting of the Society {vide Abstract for April 29th, 1891). — Ed. 



