22 
lished in 1911 by Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief Entomologist of 
the United States Department of Agriculture. (Bul. 91, U. S. 
Bureau of Entomology. July 29, 1911.) 
“The Australian Ladybird (Novius Cardinalis Muls.) in 
United States.” 
“But all previous experiments of this nature were com- 
pletely overshadowed by the remarkable success of the impor- 
tation of Vedalia (Novius) cardinalis Muls., a_ coccinellid 
beetle, or ladybird, from Australia into California in 1889. 
The orange and lemon groves of California had for some years 
been threatened with extinction by the injurious work of the 
fluted or cottony cushion scale (Jcerya purchast Mask.), a 
large scale insect which the careful investigations of Professor 
Riley and his force of entomologists at the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture had shown to have been originally 
imported, by accident, from Australia or from New Zealand, 
where it had originally been described by the New Zealand 
coccidologist, the late W. M. Maskell. The Division of Ento- 
mology had been for several years engaged in an active cam- 
paign against this insect, and had discovered washes which 
could be applied at a comparatively slight expense and which 
would destroy the scale insect. It had also in the course of 
its investigations discovered the applicability of hydrocyanic acid 
gas under tents as a method of fumigating orchards and de- 
stroying the scale. ‘The growers, however, had become so 
thoroughly disheartened by the ravages of the insect that they 
were no longer in a frame of mind to use even the cheap 
insecticide washes, and many of them were destroying their 
groves. In the meantime, through some correspondence in 
the search for the original home of the scale insect, Professor 
Riley had discovered that while the species occurred in parts 
of Australia it was not injurious in those regions. In New 
Zealand it also occurred, but was abundant and injurious. He, 
therefore, argued that the insect was probably introduced from 
Australia into New Zealand, and that its abundance.in the 
latter country and its relative scarcity in Australia were due 
to the fact that in its native home it was held in subjection 
by some parasite or natural enemy, and that in the introduc- 
