86 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



largely occupied with discussions of the probable damage 

 which will be done by these pests, and the necessity for a 

 rigid quarantine against the wholesale introduction of the 

 same. 



During the last few years there has been quite a 

 number of lemons imported from the South European 

 countries, notably from Italy and Portugal, and so far as 

 my experience goes the greater portion of these are badly 

 infested with this scale, and by the red scale of America 

 and elsewhere. If lemons or even oranges infested by this 

 scale have been sent from Australia to America, they 

 have certainly not been grown in Victoria, and it seems 

 unfair that Australia as a whole should be charged with 

 exporting scale-affected fruit into the United States or 

 elsewhere. 



As an instance of how scale or other insect pests may 

 be inadvertently introduced into any country I may cite 

 an instance which happened during our last Melbourne 

 Exhibition of 1888, when orange trees in tubs were sent 

 over from New South Wales for the decoration of their 

 court. On these small trees I found Icerya Purchasi^ 

 Mytalaspis citricola, and M. Glovei% the latter species 

 being quite new to Victoria. These trees were at my 

 request specially treated by spraying, &c., and are now 

 perfectly clean and healthy. 



With regard to the introduction of the scale on imported 

 lemons it has been pointed out to me that the paper in 

 which the lemons so sent out are enclosed is specially 

 prepared, and that it would be unlikely that the scales 

 would reach here alive. I cannot vouch for the accuracy 

 of this statement, but the scale on lemons which I have 

 purchased from the fruit shops in Melbourne, and which 

 are covered with the scale, have proved upon careful 

 examination to have been all dead. This experiment, 

 however, is hardly conclusive, and great care should be 

 taken that all imported fruit suspected of being infested 

 by disease of any kind should, before landing, be subjected 

 to fiimigation or other treatment which would destroy 

 both the insects and their eggs if anv. We have too 



