262 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



ON THE LIFE-HISTORY AND SUCCESSFUL INTRODUCTION 



INTO THE UNITED STATES OF THE SICILIAN 



MEALY-BUG PARASITE' 



By Harry Scott Smith 



The Citrus Mealj'-bug (Pseudococcus cifri (Risso)) has been known 

 to entomologists for many years as a troublesome greenhouse pest. 

 It is only in comparatively recent times, however, that it has become an 

 insect of economic importance in the orchard. In Florida it has been 

 known as an out-door pest for some time. In California its first ap- 

 pearance as an enemy of orchards is obscure, although it was familiar on 

 citrus in San Diego county as early as 1880. Since 1908 it has as- 

 sumed a position of great importance in this state in the orange and 

 lemon groves and much investigational work has been carried on in the 

 attempt to control it. Up to the present time no great success has 

 been achieved in this line, since it does not succumb readily to any of 

 the methods of spraying and fumigation which are successfully used 

 against other coccids found in citrus orchards. 



There are a number of enemies of the Citrus Mealy-bug in California, 

 some of which are of great importance at times. The most effective of 

 these are the Brown Lacewings {Sympherobius caUfornicus Banks and 

 others). Leucopis hella Loew is occasionally of importance, and Cryp- 

 tolcemus montrouzieri, a ladybird which was introduced by Kcebele in 

 the early nineties, at times renders great service close to the seacoast. 

 There is onlj' one internal parasite which is at all common, that is Chry- 

 soplatycerus splendens (Howard), an Encyrtid which attacks the half- 

 grown to full-grown mealy-bugs. It is of very little economic impor- 

 tance, however, since it breeds slowly and is local in its distribution. 



During the summer of 1914 the California State Horticultural Com- 

 mission maintained a laboratory at Palermo, Sicily, for the purpose of 

 obtaining and introducing into this state any promising enemies of the 

 Citrus Mealy-bug or of the Black Scale which might be found there. 

 The collecting of mealy-bugs was undertaken by Mr. Henry L. Viereck 

 and several shipments of these insects were forwarded to Sacramento. 

 From one of these lots of mealy-bugs we were successful in rearing a few 

 specimens of the odd little parasite which forms the subject of this 

 paper. These were placed in a cage containing lemons infested with 

 mealy-bugs and breeding took place with rapidity. Before many 

 months we were enabled to place large colonies in the orchards of 

 southern California. 



^ Occasional contributions from the California State Insectary No. 4. 



