REPORT ON PARASITES AND PREDACEOUS INSECTS. 1 £ 



REPORT ON CONDITION OF NEWLY INTRODUCED SPECIES 



IN CALIFORNIA. 



To B. M. Lelong, Esq., Secretary, and to the honorable State Board of 

 Horticulture: 



Sir: In accordance with letter of instructions of August 28th, to pro- 

 ceed with Mr. Albert Koebele to Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Orange, and 

 Santa Barbara Counties, and make an inspection and report upon the 

 condition of the beneficial insects that have been placed there, and which 

 were sent over by Mr. Koebele from Australia during his recent mission 

 to that country, having completed said examination, I beg to herewith 

 submit the following report: 



On August 31st, Mr. Albert Koebele and I visited the orange orchard 

 of Albert F. Kercheval, at Los Angeles, where the first colonies of lady- 

 birds from Australia were placed, and which arrived last winter and 

 spring. Besides ourselves there were present John Scott, Horticultural 

 Commissioner of Los Angeles County; D. W. Coquillett, Special Agent 

 of the Department of Agriculture; Henry W. Kruckeberg, editor " Rural 

 Californian;" Col. J. R. Dobbins, A. Scott Chapman, Esq., of San Gabriel, 

 and others. 



It was at this place that the beetles of the first shipment were placed. 

 These arrived in very feeble condition. Mr. Koebele says that they 

 probably hibernated in Australia, and possibly had deposited their eggs 

 before he captured them. However, after a careful examination of this 

 place we found beetles, eggs, larvae, and pupse of the steel-blue ladybird 

 (Orcus chalybeus). Insects of later importations were received in good 

 condition, and upon our visit we found sufficient of their eggs and pupae 

 to justify the assertion that this species has become established at Los 

 Angeles. Mr. Koebele says this is the insect that keeps the red scale 

 (Aspidiotus aurantii) in check in the orange groves in Australia, not- 

 withstanding that a parasite preys on these ladybirds there, which 

 destroys fully 50 per cent of their first brood, and about 90 per cent of 

 the second brood. Great care was taken not to introduce this parasite, 

 which is such a deadly enemy to them. When Mr. Koebele discovered 

 that the young of these ladybirds were preyed upon by a parasite, he sent 

 only mature beetles to California. Thus it may be safely said, that it 

 will only be a matter of time when we shall reasonably hope for the 

 rapid increase of these valuable insects, and even better results from 

 them than are obtained in Australia. 



In another orchard at Los Angeles where a colony had been placed, 

 we found but few beetles and larvae, but enough to show that at this 

 place also they had become established. 



On September 1st, Mr. John Scott and Mr. Hiram Hamilton, Horti- 

 cultural Commissioners of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, respect- 

 ively, and I examined the orchard at Orange where a colony of the 

 steel-blue ladybirds you sent Mr. Hamilton had been placed. We found 



