SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL. XXXUl 



insect Blastophaga grassontui, which carries the pollen from the 

 Capri Figs, and without which Smyrna Figs cannot be fertilised. 

 The Smyrna Fig is imperfect (self sterile), and the structure 

 of the tig is such that it can be fertilised only by means of the 

 Blastophaga, which breeds in the Capri Figs, and, coming to 

 maturity when the pollen of the Capri Fig is ready, emerges 

 covered with pollen, which it carries into the Smyrna Figs, and 

 thus brings about fertilisation without which perfect fruit is 

 impossible. 



" /Mthough Mr. Lounsbury was not personally instrumental 

 in introducing into South Africa the Ladybird Novius ( Vc- 

 dalia) cardinalis which destroys the Australian bug Icerya 

 purcliasi — for the J'cdalia had been introduced into the country 

 a short time before Mr. Lounsbury's arrival here — he at once 

 took up the work of distributing the Ladybird on scientific lines, 

 and with such success that to-day one seldom hears the Aus- 

 tralian Bug so much as mentioned as a pest in this country. 



" But 'Sir. Lounsbury's researches in South Africa have 

 been fruitful of good results to other countries as well. In 1898 

 he found in South Africa a parasite wasp which he at once 

 foresaw would prove of considerable advantage to several other 

 countries for the control of the Black Scale {Lccaniitm olcce). 

 Fie found that by means of this parasite (ScutclUsta c\anca), 

 the Black Scale could be kept in complete suppression here, and 

 his suggestion that other lands might share in this benefit re- 

 sulted in a formal request for assistance in this direction being 

 made by the United States Government. Mr. Lounsbury 

 despatched supplies of the chalcid wasp parasite to America, 

 and colonies thereof were successfully established in the Cali- 

 fornian orchards. Similarly, Mr. Lounsbury was instrumental 

 in despatching to the island of Ascension, at the urgent request 

 of the Admiralty, several colonies of one of the South African 

 ladybirds {Exochomus nigromaculatus) for the purpose of 

 destroying the Woolly Aphis of the apple tree, which was doing 

 much damage on the island. Some years previously, Mr. Louns- 

 bury had also supplied Ascension with hundreds of specimens of 

 the Ladyljirds (Enopia cinctclla, Chilomcnes liinata, and Adalia 

 flavomaculata, for similar purposes. 



" To Mr. Lounsbury's thorough and constant study of the 

 best method of exterminating insect pests is due, more than to 

 anyone else, the credit of the country's being provided with 

 efficient insecticides, fungicides, apparatus and methods asso- 

 ciated with the spraying of fruit trees. A very far-reaching 

 development in this work was the discovery that the effectiveness 

 of the Lime-Sulphur-Salt wash over the old California formula 

 was due to the presence of the sulphides of calcium. This at 

 once revolutionised the spraying of orchards for Scale Insects 

 and Plant Diseases, because the elimination of the great excess 

 of lime and salt in the old formula" not only reduced the first 

 cost of the wash by one-half, but the resulting freedom of the 

 spraying-mixture from grit, etc., lengthened the life of the spray- 



c 



