89 



He had in his experiment orchard a number of trees that had never 

 been treated, which showed resisting qualities and did well. The scale 

 never increased be3'ond a certain point, and then practically died off. 

 He had never found any wheel bugs in this orchard, so that these 

 could not be considered in accounting for the disappearance of the 

 ladybirds. They should hardly rank as enemies, but might form an 

 important factor in the destruction of the larva? of this ladybird 

 beetle if it really appeared in considerable numbers. He knew that 

 many of our predaceous insects eat a great variety of food. The 

 wheel bug will eat a webworm, the larv» of the elm-leaf beetle, or 

 anything else in its way with equal pleasure. 



Mr. Smith had been able to determine positively that the larva of 

 the two-spotted ladybird eats the young crawling scale larva*. He 

 thought, as a result of his observations in California, that there was a 

 possibility that the California species of Chilocorus was different from 

 our Eastern form, though they were quite similar in appearance. He 

 had had a num])er in the early stages and could not make out any dif- 

 ference between them. One year 200 California specimens had been 

 sent to him, and in comparison with the Japanese specimens and those 

 from the eastern United States he was not able to tell which came 

 from one place and which came from the other. To secure the lot that 

 had been imported from Japan, he wrote to every entomologist in that 

 country whose address could be secured. Individual letters were sent, 

 with offers to pay all expenses, and in this way a considerable number 

 of two species were secured, one a large form, the name of which 

 was not remembered at that moment, and the other a smaller species, 

 Chiloconis similis. These beetles were taken to a very scaly orchard 

 and liljerated on the trees at a season of the year when all stages of 

 the scale were present, and when there was an abundance of time for 

 the beetles to deposit eggs. So far as he knew there had been no sur- 

 vivors. He had not been able to find any larva? and had not recognized 

 the difference between those of the twice-stabbed ladybird and those 

 of the CMlocorus similis until Mr. Marlatt had pointed it out in his 

 paper. He considered that Mr. Marlatt was ver}^ conservative in his 

 claims in regard to the imported beetles and thought his suggestions 

 well worth the trial. He was in doubt as to the importance of the 

 injury resulting from the wheel bug, but stated that this species did 

 considerable good in controlling the fall webworm. In response to a 

 query, Mr. Smith stated that the CMlocorus similis had been placed 

 in the orchards referred to three or four years ago. He further stated 

 that the orchard had been pretty well cleaned of scales by other 

 means, but that he had never seen any descendants of the imported 

 insects. 



Mr. Sanderson observed that C. Mvulnerus was very common in 

 Delaware and that he knew of several orchards where it kept the 



