Report oi'" the State Entomologist 341 



It occurred to Dr. Riley, chief of the Entomological Division, that 

 the ravages of the insect could be staid, if the natural parasites that 

 had kept it from being a pest in its home in Australia, could be 

 secured, brought to California, propagated in sufficient number, and 

 then turned loose to seek their prey. After much labor and many 

 disappointments, a small appropriation was obtained sufficing to 

 defray the traveling expenses of two agents of the division. They were 

 dispatched to Australia, where they were successful in procuring some 

 of the parasites and predaceous enemies of the Icerya, and in sending 

 them alive to this country. They were carefully cared for, propagated 

 in confinement in large number, and then distributed throughout the 

 infested districts. One of the imported species, belonging to the 

 family of "lady-bugs" {CoccineUidce) has displayed wonderful powers of 

 multiplication, and remarkable fitness for the work assigned it. From 

 the 514 individuals imported last winter, in five different sendings, 

 the present progeny may be numbered by the million. 



The success of this measure has far exceeded the most sanguine 

 expectations. It has been simply marvelous ! The orange grower 

 now points to orchards which were on the verge of ruin, where it is 

 not easy to find a single living scale. The, perhaps, most pernicious 

 scale-insect ever known to science, has been conquered, and seems 

 doomed to a speedy extermination. The California fruit-growers are 

 jubilant over the success of the first experiment of fighting an intro- 

 duced pest by the importation of its natural enemies — often pi'oposed 

 but never before accomplished. 



Cultivation of Insect Diseases. 

 Considerable attention has been given by Professor Forbes and 

 others to the contagious diseases of insects, to which some of our 

 insect enemies have shown themselves to be quite liable. They have 

 at times assumed an epidemic character, and have thereby proved 

 highly beneficial in arresting serious and widespread ravages. It has 

 been hoped that much might be accomplished by the distribution of 

 insects infested with contagious disease to uninfested localities, and 

 thus rapidly and greatly entend its sphere of operations. Experi- 

 ments of this nature have been made the past year in Minnesota 

 and in Kansas to utilize a fungus disease with which the chinch-bug 

 has been recently attacked in some of the western states. In Kansas, 

 numbers of the diseased bugs were collected, which being confined 

 with appai'ently healthy ones, readily communicated their malady to 

 them. "When a sufficient quantity were obtained in this manner, dis- 

 tribution was made of them at various points along the railroads of 



