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alive to California. These were liberated in the infested districts, 

 and one especiall}^, the lady-bird Vedalia cardinalis, pro\ed 

 extremely etlective, so that the /cerT/a-pests was speedily reduced, 

 and the despair of the fruit- growers gave way to hope as the 

 equilibrium of nature began to be restored. 



Mr. R. Allan Wight has written a graphic account of the 

 Icerya and Vedalia in an Australian paper, the " Oarden and 

 Field," which has lately been reproduced in " Insect Life." In 

 New Zealand the Icerya is sometimes a great pest, and Mr. 

 Wight gives the following description of the way it is cleared off 

 by the beetle ; — 



" Some two years ago everything seemed white around 

 Auckland with the clustering Icerya, a great many orange and 

 lemon trees (including one entire lemon orchard), were dead, and 

 the prospect was as gloomy as could be, till Vedalia (which had 

 been accidentally imported from Australia) appeared on the scene. 

 Astonishing as it may seem to be, and incredible, within one year 

 hardly any of the scales were left, and the lady-birds had also 

 disappeai'ed. The little beetles are rank cannibals when pressed 

 by hunger, and as no one was able to discover any other food but 

 Icerya upon which they will feed, it was feared that, in the 

 absence of Icerya, they would become extinct." 



If scale-insects, when taken to new countries, were only as 

 injurious as in their native homes, there would be strong enough 

 reasons for not importing them ; but when we see that being freed 

 from their enemies, they may increase to a much gi'eater extent, 

 the necessity for preventing their introduction becomes a very 

 pressing one. The ease with which scale insects may be carried 

 from one part of the world to another is well known. Some of 

 the most interesting scales described in late years have been found 

 on foreign plants in hot-houses in England, where they must have 

 been carried from the tropics. In the West Indies, we have two 

 mango scales, the Vinsonia and Lecanirim mangifero'; which 

 doubtless reached us on plants from the East Indies ; while quite 

 recently, a New Zealand species, Chionaspis minor of Maskell, 

 has been found commonly in Kingston. Various species of 

 European origin have spread widely in the United States, and 

 while some of them, as the black scale ( Bernardia oleoi), are now 

 abundant in Jamaica, there are others which do not seem to have 

 reached this Island, — and it may be hoped, will never be allowed 

 to do so. 



One of the destructive scales found in other West Indian 

 islands, and in the United States, but not apparently as yet in 

 Jamaica, is Chionaspis citri, which affects the orange. The 

 following account of its introduction into Bermuda is from a 

 report by U.S. Vice Consul J. B. Heyl, of that island : — 



