47 
with a salt-water wash, just on general principles of cleanliness. I 
have felt it merely necessary to recommend soap instead of salt as 
more valuable where scales are concerned. 
The important feature for America is the Japanese ladybird (Chilo- 
corus similis). With the literature available here I can not determine 
whether this beetle has already been carried to America by Koebele 
or Compere, but I am expecting daily information on this point from 
Washington, so that if necessary I can send, or at least make the 
attempt to send, living beetles to California and the East. 
A general discussion followed the reading of Mr. Marlatt’s paper. 
Mr. Cockerell said that he was very glad to hear Mr. Marlatt’s 
paper, as it threw a great deal of interesting light on the conditions 
existing in Japan. Hitherto we had greatly lacked information of 
this sort. He wished to correct one statement in the paper, that he 
(the speaker) considered the Japanese insect distinet from the true 
San Jose scale. This was the exact reverse of the truth, but he did 
consider that the scale presented some varieties in Japan, as, for. 
example, the one feeding on orange trees, a thing the insect in Cali- 
fornia never did. Mr. Marlatt’s statement about the Chilocorus was 
very interesting. The speaker had noticed a similar case in Arizona 
when the Chilocorus cacti, feeding normally on the native Diaspis 
toumey?, came to prey upon the introduced date palm scale (Parlatoria). 
As regards the main proposition advanced by Mr. Marlatt, that the 
San Jose scale was certainly not a native of Japan, Mr. Cockerell 
could not see that any proof had been offered. The fact that the 
insect occurred mainly upon imported American varieties was just 
what might be expected if it were native to Japan, as the American 
varieties would be less resistant than the Japanese. It has been 
observed by Dr. John B. Smith that the Keiffer pear was, to a con- 
siderable degree, resistant to the scale. Now, this pear was a hybrid 
with the Chinese sand pear, and it seemed to show that trees having 
Chinese or Japanese blood, or one should say sap, were more or less 
resistant to the scale. The fact that the scale was not found on wild 
plants in Japan proved nothing. Mr. Cockerell had found many 
Coccids in New Mexico on wild plants, and though the plants were 
abundant the Coccids were usually confined to very limited localities, 
and even after years of residence in the immediate vicinity were very 
likely to be overlooked. He also knew of cases such as those of 
Toumeyella mirabilis and Dactylopius prosopidis in which these iso- 
lated colonies were entirely destroyed by parasites or predaceous 
enemies. 
The San Jose scale belonged to a Palearctic or at least a Holarctie 
group, and must surely have originated in the northern temperate 
zone. It certainly could not be supposed to come from Europe, and 
