WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 501 



ment expense. Riley, however, was not to be deterred by this fact, 

 and he puzzled over the situation until he found a solution. It 

 chanced that in the following year an international exposition was to 

 be held at Melbourne, and Congress had appropriated money to the 

 State Department to finance representation by the United States. Hon. 

 Frank McCoppin, formerly postmaster of San Francisco, had been 

 appointed head of the American commission to the exposition, and 

 Riley interviewed the State Department and requested that one of 

 his assistants be sent to Australia, at the expense of the exposition 

 fund, for the purpose of securing the parasites. McCoppin, being a 

 Californian, favored the scheme, but made the proviso that at the 

 same time Riley should send another assistant to make a report on 

 the agricultural features of the exposition. So Albert Koebele was 

 sent to get the parasites, and F. M. Webster to make the report on 

 agriculture. 



The results of Koebele's work are ncAv known everywhere. The 

 story has become a classic in applied entomology and horticulture. 

 He sent over the Lestophonus, which, however, did not prove a suc- 

 cess ; but he also found the famous little ladybird Novius cardinalis 

 (then called Vedalia cardinalis) , forwarded colonies to Los Angeles, 

 where another Department of Agriculture assistant, D. W. Coquil- 

 lett, had made preparations to receive and colonize the natural ene- 

 mies of the scale. Between November 30, 1889, and January 24, 

 1890, Coquillett had received 139 of the little beetles in three send- 

 ings- — -28 on Noveml)er 30, 44 on December 29, and 57 on January 24. 

 As early as April 12, Coquillett had begun sending out colonies, so 

 rapidly did the species breed. By June 12, 11,000 specimens had been 

 sent out to 208 orchardists, and by the end of the year the scale 

 insect was practically no longer a factor to be considered in the culti- 

 vation of oranges and lemons in California. The following season 

 it practically disappeared, and since that time it has never been a 

 factor in California horticulture. Once in a while it begins to increase 

 m numbers at some point, but the Australian ladybirds are always 

 kept breeding by the State Board of Horticulture, and such outbreaks 

 are reduced speedily. 



The effect of this experiment on the horticultural world was ex- 

 traordinary. It aroused great hope, especially in California, that the 

 keynote to insect warfare had been sounded, and many of the leading 

 men in the State were so enthusiastic that they advocated the 

 instant stopping of all other kinds of warfare against insects. As we 

 have elsewhere shown, the progress of economic entomology in Cali- 



