INSECTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



fornia. The San Jose scale, that once threatened the 

 whole deciduous fruit interest of California, came 

 from China, probably by way of Japan, about 1875. 

 The cottony-cushion scale that similarly once 

 threatened all the citrus orchards came from Aus- 

 tralia about 1868. And the story of the coming and 

 settling and finding the country good, of several of 

 the other kinds is as well known. 



But fortunately the economic entomologists have 

 learned something to their advantage from this kind 

 of insect emigration. They have learned deliberately 

 to hunt for and import good bugs to fight the bad 

 ones. For example it was discovered that the Aus- 

 tralian cottony-cushion scale, so dangerous a pest in 

 this country, was not so dangerous in Australia, and 

 this because of the active efforts made there by a 

 certain kind of little black and red ladybird beetle 

 known as the Vedalia. The scale pest had got car- 

 ried to America without its Vedalia enemy and ac- 

 cordingly found California in truth the promised 

 land. Now what more commonsensible than delib- 

 erately to import and colonize Vedalia in the Cali- 

 fornia orange and lemon orchards? which was 

 accordingly done, and done easily and successfully, 

 so that here as in Australia, Vedalia keeps the 

 cottony-cushion scale insect within practically 

 harmless bounds. 



Naturally such a success has led to many other 

 attempts in many other similar cases. Perhaps no 

 other success has been so marked as the now classic 

 first one, but much other success there has been, 

 both on the Pacific Coast and on Pacific Islands, 

 notably Hawaii, and als9 in the Eastern states. The 

 great fight against the imported foliage and forest 

 tree pests of New England, the dire gipsy and 

 brown-tail moths, is resolving itself more and more 

 into a search for and colonizing of their natural 

 parasites in Europe and Japan. More than thirty 

 kinds of parasitic and predacious insect enemies 

 of these moth pests have been brought to this coun- 

 try and offered a hospitable welcome. Some of 

 them, notably a voracious Calosoma beetle, seem to 

 be already more than earning their living. 



Another type of good bug brought to the Pacific 

 Coast by deliberate importation and carefully nursed 

 to an effective colonization is the curious little tig- 

 wasp, Blastophaga, by whose means the "caprifica- 

 tion," i. e. pollination, of figs depends, on which 

 depends in turn, the full size, sweetness and the 

 nutty flavor of the best commercial figs. The fig is 

 a hollow but fleshy receptacle with many minute 

 flowers inside. The Blastophaga eggs are laid in 



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