528 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



In 1923, E. G. Smyth was sent to Alexico to search for parasites of 

 the Mexican bean beetle. He found an effective Tachinid parasite, 

 Paradexodes epilachnac, and sent 2,000 Hving puparia. An attempt 

 was made to hold these insects over at Birmingham, Alabama, and to 

 colonize them. This effort was not successful. 



California. — We have elsewhere told of the unfortunate situation 

 that resulted from the overwhelming success of the importation of 

 Novius cardinalis into California. For years after that time a very 

 large element of the fruit-growers and farmers were greatly inclined 

 to rely upon natural enemies, and much work on the part of unskilled 

 agents of the State was wasted and large sums spent in traveling were 

 likewise wasted. Many profitless introductions were made, and sev- 

 eral that were very unwise and most unfortunate. Only one of these 

 unwise importations, however, turned out to be rather disastrous, 

 namely Ouaylea whittieri, which proved to be a secondary and de- 

 stroyed useful parasites of the black scale ; l)ut it is a mere matter 

 of luck that great harm was not done by others. One of the last 

 greatly advertised importations was the introduction from Spain 

 into California in 1904 by George Compere of an Ichneumonid para- 

 site known as Calliephialtes mcssor Grav. The most glowing prophe- 

 cies were made, and the statement was repeated again and again that 

 no more spraying for codling moth would be necessary ; but, although 

 the species was reared successfully in confinement in the insectary, it 

 failed to take hold in the orchards and so far as is known never did 

 any good. The next year the law of August 5. 1905, was passed, and 

 this law enabled the Department of Agriculture to prevent such im- 

 portations as the State had been making ; and the work of the State 

 in this direction would have been stopped by order of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture had it not been for the fact that just at that time 

 Prof. A. J. Cook was made Director of Horticulture for the State 

 and appointed Harry Scott Smith, a trained entomologist who had 

 I)een working in the Parasite Laboratory of the United States Bureau 

 of Entomology in Massachusetts, to take charge of the parasite work 

 for the State. 



Mr. Smith, on taking this position, was made an official collabora- 

 tor of the United States Department of Agriculture, and therefore 

 in a way his subsequent efforts in this direction may be said to have 

 been in cooperation with the Federal Government, or at least to have 

 been tacitly authorized by the Federal Government. 



The subsequent efforts of the State of California in this direction 

 have been written about by Mr. Smith and have been published from 

 time to time. For example, in the Monthly Bulletin of the California 



