279 



GENERAL NOTES. 



MORE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES OF VEDALIA. 



We arc pleased to record another successful shipment of Vedalia from 

 one country to another. On Xovember 10 at our direction Mr. Cociuil- 

 lett started a shipment of live Vedalia to New Zealand. The former 

 sending- consigned to Dr. B. Locking, of Xelson, liad failed owing to 

 the opening of the package by the customs and post-office authorities 

 in New Zealand, who repacked it in such a careless manner that the in- 

 sects escaped. With this last sending, therefore, great care was taken. 

 Mr. Coquillett accompanied the package to San Francisco and placed 

 it in chai"ge of a responsible person on board the steamer, who trans- 

 mitted it with great care, and the result is that we have just learned 

 from Dr. Locking that the package arrived intact and that the insects 

 were alive. There were about 20 living beetles besides larvae in differ- 

 ent stages of growth which reached New Zealand in good condition. 

 Iceryahasbeen increasing recently, as we have elsewhere stated, and has 

 again become a pest in certain portions of New Zealand. Vedalia has 

 been found living, having carried itself over successfully from its pre- 

 vious abundance in 1888, but of this fact we were apprised after our 

 shipment had been started. There is no doubt, however, but that these 

 specimens consigned to Dr. Locking will aid greatly in the extermina- 

 tion of the Icerya. 



Another attempt has also been made to send Vedalia to Egypt. On 

 December 13 Mr. Coquillett sent a package containing an abundant 

 supply of both Vedalia and Icerya, by express, to Washington, D. C. 

 Owing probably to the great rush of Christmas business the express 

 company did not deliver it until December 25. The box was opened 

 and the Vedalia were found to be in a most admirable condition, while 

 there was still a plentiful supply of Icerya alive for them to feed upon. 

 The orange twigs, from which the leery as had begun to migrate on ac- 

 count of withering, were renewed from the Department conservatories, 

 the box was repacked, and Mr. Howard took it the same afternoon to 

 New York, where it was placed in charge of the butcher on board the 

 steamship Etruria, with instructions to keep it cold on the transatlantic 

 journey and to deliver it to the agents of Pitt »fc Scott, the European 

 forwarding agents in Liverpool. It was calcidated that this journey 

 from Washington \^ill occupy sixteen days, so that there is every reason 

 to anticipate an arrival in Alexandria in good condition. 



HARMLESS SPIDER BITES. 



In refreshing contrast to the usual indefinite and often exaggerated 

 accounts of spider bites and their effects, there has come to us the fol- 

 lowing from Mr. Th. Pergande, of this Division: 



On the morning of October 25, 1891, Mr. Pergande found a fine speci- 



