395 



water, and from that to 180, but no one anything weaker, and not with much success 

 either. Ifmyobservations show anything, I will not fail to keep you informed. — [R. A. 

 Wight, Paeroa, Auckland, New Zealand, February 2, 1891. 



Icerya and Vedalia in New Zealand and Australia. 



I had not intended to ask you to send me any specimens of Vedalia cardinalis, but 

 I have been so earnestly pressed to do so that I have yielded. Icerya has returned 

 here to every place where it was before, and people seem to imagine that I have 

 some means of providing them with these beetles. I could foresee what would hap- 

 pen, and I did what little I could to induce the government to take care of Vedalia, 

 but I could get neither them nor the association to take the necessary steps. A fete, 

 and a few only, of the beetles should have been kept on baud, and a house of Icerya 

 should have been preserved for their use. It is not necessary to keep a large number 

 of Vedalia on hand ; a very small number of them, even one or two pairs, turned out 

 in a large infected orange grove will very soon overtake Icerya. I think from what 

 you say in your last letter, that it is very probable that you may not be able to send 

 me any Vedalia, but if you can send only three or four of them, and direct the little 

 parcel to Dr. Locking, President of the Fruit Growers' Association, Nelson, New Zea- 

 land, I would be very much obliged to you, and I feel ashamed to ask, as I have not 

 been able to do as you desired in the same way for the Cape of Good Hope. Our Gov- 

 ernment desired some of their officials at Napier (where Mr. Koebele got 6,000 in 

 three days in 1888) to collect and transmit to an infected district some of the Vedalia, 

 but these gentlemen made a very natural mistake, and sent another Coccinellid some- 

 what like it. 



I at once sent technical colored drawi ngs of the two species, and offered to identify 

 any specimens sent, in the hope that they might be procured, in which case I would 

 have gone there and procured supplies, both for our own people and the Cape. I am 

 anxious the Cape government should have them, because I think they would profit 

 by Californian and United States experience, and not let the supply run out, and 

 then we could all look to Africa for future supplies, for you may rest assured that 

 Icerya will return to California, and probably the beetle may be no further to be 

 had then than it is now with us. Icerya is sure to return. Mr. Olliff, the New South 

 Wales government entomologist, wrote to me the other day very auxious to procure 

 specimens, dead or alive, "if only one," as he is working up Australian Coccinellids, 

 but I had not a single specimen, having given my last away long ago. He says the 

 only specimen in all Australia is in the British Museum, and no one there ever saw 

 the insect, but Mulsant described it in 1847 as a very rare Australian insect, and I 

 feel quite certain, for many good reasons, that it was brought here with Icerya from 

 Australia. I am afraid we will not find it here now, as this is the month which it 

 should be in force, and also in March, but I do not quite give it up till the end of 

 March . 



What puzzles Mr. Olliff is that he can not find " a trace of it " in any of the bunches 

 of Icerya he has searched, but I tell him that if Vedalia were there there would be 

 no " bunches" to search, and what always puzzled me in Mr. Koebele's account of his 

 trip, was that he should find Vedalia in small numbers and also Icerya perforated by 

 Lestophonus, because 1 never found Vedalia except in large numbers, and wherever 

 they appeared Icerya for the time being completely vanished. I never knew any 

 half measures, or any moderation in Vedalia. It was always a vast crowd, or none 

 at all. — [R. Allan Wight, Paeroa, Auckland, New Zealand, February 2, 1891. 



The Rhinoceros Beetle in a Woodshed. 



I send you by mail rare specimens of bugs I unearthed in cleaning out my wood- 

 house today, which has not been cleaned out for 25 years. I have shown them to 

 hundreds of persons, and they all say they never saw any bug like them. They were 



