58 



as the insects make their appearance. Two washings, at least, are necessary to do effi- 

 cient work. Many prefer a washing after the fruit is off; I should prefer one in June and 

 another in September. 



The most successful cleaning of tree for the red spider I have lately observed is where 

 abundance of sulphur was used in the solution, in fact, as much as could be carried in the 

 solution — about five pounds to the one hundred gallons; when difficulty is experienced to 

 get such quantity through the nozzle, the San Jose nozzle, with rubber substituted for 

 the brass disk, is the best. 



CHAPTER Vlir. 



BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 



Ladybirds or bugs — The brown-necked lady bug — Lace- wing flies — Podabrus beetles — 

 Syrphus flies. 



THE LADYBIRDS OR BUGS. 



Coccinellidx. 



The usefulness of the ladybugs in destroying aphis of all kinds is familiar 

 to most persons having observed these pretty little insects. Yet the very 

 great role they play in keeping the myriads of aphis and scale insects in 

 check is not as fully appreciated by many as it ought to be. Indeed, were 

 it not for the interference of those insects, the very ground would be covered 

 with aphis, and our grain, flowers, and fruit trees destroyed by the various 

 numbers of the homoptera or true bugs. 



Among insects very conspicuous for their predaceous habits, I have 

 especially had occasion to observe four families of insects. These are true 

 beetles undergoing the usual transformation of the highly developed insect. 

 The eggs are yellow, somewhat pointed, and laid in bunches on bark and 

 leaves of trees or plants. The larva produced from this is a curious little 

 creature, soft, worm-like, tapering to both ends, is provided with six legs, 

 and is quite active. Some of the larva, as the ordinary ladybugs of the 

 genus Coccinella, are naked bluish, with yellow spots; others, like Scymnus, 

 are covered with short hairs, and those of the Chilocorus are provided with 

 soft black spines. It is in the larval state that these insects do the most 

 good. Thus it was larva I found feeding inside the egg-sac of the fluted 

 scale. . 



r.su.e ^u. 44. 



It is in the larval state that the Chilocorus, or black red-spotted lady))ug, 

 does its best work feeding on the various scale insects, and it does its work 

 sometimes so thoroughly that in some instances the scale has been appar- 



