135 



cases, flow from intelligent effort in this direction, is now sufficiently 

 well known to American economic entomologists; but anticipating that 

 we shall have foreign delegates among us, and that our proceedings 

 will be published more widely than usual, it will, perhaps, be wise to 

 give the salient historical facts in the case, even at the risk of some 

 repetition of what has been already published. In doing this the 

 indulgence of the society is craved for the prominence of my own part 

 in the work, rendered necessary by the disposition in some quarters to 

 distort the facts. 



The Fluted Scale, otherwise known as the White or Cottony-cushion 

 Scale (Icerya purchasi Maskell), is one of the largest species of its 

 family (Coccida3), and up to 1888 had done immense injury to the orange 

 groves and to many other trees and shrubs of Southern California. 

 From Australia, its original home, it had been imported into Xew 

 Zealand, South Africa, and California, the evidence pointing to its 

 introduction into California about 1868, and, probably, upon Acacia 

 latijolia. 



In my annual report as U. S. Entomologist for 1886 will be found a 

 full characterization of the species in all its stages; but the three 

 characteristics which most concern the practical man, and which make 

 it one of the most difficult species to contend with, are its ability to sur- 

 vive for long periods without food, to thrive upon a great variety of 

 plants, and to move about throughout most of its life. 



The injuries of this insect, notwithstanding the efforts to check it, 

 kept on increasing, and some ten years ago I felt that the work of this 

 particular species and of others which seriously affected the fruit- 

 growing interests of Southern California justified the establishment of 

 agencies there. Up to this time no special entomological effort had been 

 made by the Government on behalf of the fruit-growers of the Pacific 

 coast. Through agents stationed, the one at Los Angeles, the other 

 at Alameda, a course of elaborate experiments was undertaken as to 

 the best means of treating the insects affecting the Orange there, and 

 more particularly this Fluted or Cottony-cushion Scale. During the 

 progress of these investigations, however, the fact impressed itself 

 upon my mind that we had here an excellent opportunity of calling to 

 our aid its own natural enemies, for while there were some doubts as 

 to the origin of Icerya, the question was finally settled to my own sat- 

 isfaction that it was of Australian origin, and that in its native home 

 it was not a serious pest, but was kept subdued by natural checks. 

 These facts were not positively ascertained without a good deal of 

 correspondence and investigation, involving, in fact, a trip to France, 

 as has been set forth in my published writings upon the subject. 



In my report as U. S. Entomologist for 1886, in an address before 



the State Board of Horticulture at Riverside, California, in 1887; 



in a paper before the Philosophical Society of Washington in the 



winter of 1888, and elsewhere, I urged, with all the force at my com- 



9052 No. 2 6 



