m;NKi'Ki.\i. iNsi-XTs. iy3 



You arc. of course, autlioriscil to puhlisli this infornialion. Tlic offi- 

 cials of your Department liad not then the halo of glory you and yours 

 are now adorned with; we were three who formed the l)ei)artnKiii th<n 

 — but even at this epoch the " Consuls were watchin^^." 



To my mind the outstanding- weakness in Aiilis fwdala was 

 the fact that it was shigi,nsh and slower to mature than was 

 Moi'ius cardinalis. This difference in the two species was also 

 recognised hy Dr. Perin<^itey. for he states that " the Attstralian 

 •^et about his work with nnuii more rapidity than did the South 

 African." That Noi'iiis cardinalis was the more aggressive of 

 the two species is also shown l)y his statement that " had not 

 the indigenous species l)een devoiu'ed by the im])orted article, I 

 doubt if any Iccrya would liave been left." My own observa- 

 tions in the Eastern as well as the Western Cape Province dur- 

 ing the last i6 years do not bear out the belief that no Iccrya 

 would have been left had Aiilis fa\iata not been interfered with. 

 Roth species have come under my observation re])eatedly, and 

 there has never been any doubt in my mind that Novius car- 

 dinalis is the controlling species. My impression is that Aulis 

 fa-data can endure cold better than can Novius cardinalis ; but, 

 on the other hand, conditions under which citrus trees thrive 

 favour Noviiis cardinalis. \^^len read in conjimction with the 

 following paragraphs, this opens up an interesting i)roblem that 

 iv at present receiving attention from the practical standpoint — 

 i.e., to develop a strain of one that can stand cold, and of the 

 other that can stand heat. 



In accordance with the old idea that we should study how 

 to assist parasitic (beneficial) insects by creating conditions that 

 would favour the parasite at the expense of its host, it was but 

 natural, during my earlier observations to speculate on the 

 possibility of assisting Aulis fo'data in some way in case it had 

 Ijeen necessary to depend on it for the control of the newly- 

 introduced host insect. During this time (19CX)) a colony of 

 another Australian ladybird, Cryptolccmus montrouzicri, was 

 sent by Mr. Geo. Compere to Mr. Chas. P. Lounsbury, then 

 Government Entomologist for the Cape of Good Hope, Cape 

 Towai, and the work of breeding this new ladybird in large num- 

 bers in the hope that it would become established in South Africa 

 and help to control the vine mealybug, Pscudococcus capcnsis. 

 w^as entrusted to me. In my anxiety to prevent overcrowding 

 w^th the possible destruction of ladybird eggs by the older larvae, 

 I followed the plan of removing the newly-transformed adults 

 as promptly as possible to fresh food-supply. This resulted in 

 an intricate series of colonies, in which the ofif.spring of the first- 

 maturing adults of any given brood were well advanced before 

 the last adult of the same brood appeared. The ladybirds in- 

 creased so rapidly that it was not long before there was no roorn 

 for them, and colonies had to be liberated, and only " stock " 

 colonies kept for breeding purposes. It was then ai)parent that, 

 for the control of the vine mealy bug. CryptoUcmus was entirely 

 too large, and would have to be reduced in size l)efore it could 



