10 
parently in a healthy condition. As the trees infested were all inclosed, 
no proper examination could be made and the few obtained at the town 
hall showed no trace of parasites. A trip was also made to Parramatta, 
about 14 miles to the west of Sydney, to look into some of the orange 
orchards. Ifound nearly all the trees badly infested with the red-scale 
(Aspidiotus aurantit Maskell, Fig. 1), and still worse with what I con- 
Fig. 1.—Aspidiotus aurantii Maskell: 1, seales on leaf of orange, natural size; la, adult male; 10, 
seales of female; le, scale of nale—enlarged (after Comstock). 
sidered to be Mytilaspis gloverii Packard.* Indeed, some of tbe trees 
are completely covered by this latter scale, having the appearance of 
an old coat of whitewash on the bark which had partly fallen off. None 
of the several orange-growers there visited had ever seen an Icerya or 
was familiar with the insect. I left Sydney on the 24th and arrived in 
Melbourne the following day, having in the meantime, through the 
kindness of the United States consul, obtained a free pass over the New 
South Wales Railway, which courtesy was shown me by all the colonies 
subsequently visited. Indeed, I can not speak too highly of the kind- 
ness shown me by all the Government officials, and of the interest they 
took in the successful execution of my work. I remained in Melbourne 
for six days, during which time I visited Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, 
to whom you had given me letters of introduction. This gentleman 
assured ine that the Icerya never became extensively injurious in Aus- 
*A careful study of the pygidial characters of this scale shows it to be much nearer 
M. pomorum than M. gloverii. It seems, however, to be distinct from the former and 
will probably prove to be new.—C, V. R. 
