616 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



Fig. 3. Koibele's Ladybird Beetle (Novius 

 Icoeblei OlliUl. Adult male, greatly enlarged 

 (original drawing by BirdnekotE). A very 

 small species being not longer than one- 

 eiglitli of an incli ; the males are bright red 

 with dark markings; the females red with 

 dark bead, protborax, and marginal spot 

 near the middle of each wing cover. The 

 larvae are dark red and about one-fourth of 

 an inch long. The small oblong red eggs 

 are deposited by the females on the egg sacs 

 of the host and hatch within a few days. 

 The young immediately enter the egg sac and 

 begin feeding upon the eggs and young 

 hatched scales. It was first introduced by 

 Albert Koebele and is continually being re- 

 distributed by the State Insectary. It feeds 

 upon the cottony cushion scale. (Iccrya pur- 

 chasi). This species is often more numer- 

 ous and does greater execution than does 

 the Vedalia (yovius cnrdinalis), for which 

 it is usually mistaken. 



are, first, the careful segregation of all 

 secondary forms, which must be imme- 

 diately destroyed and not a single in- 

 dividual allowed to escape. Packages must 

 be opened in an air-tight room or tight 

 glass case; one end covered with a black 

 cloth curtain into which holes are cut. 

 The package is placed inside the case, the 

 operator puts his arms through the holes 

 in the curtain and thus works inside the 

 case. Second, additional importations to 

 enable cross-breeding and to prevent in- 

 breeding, also to give the species the ad- 

 vantage of different seasons in which to 

 become established, or, in case the first 

 shipment would meet with disaster upon 

 being liberated. 



Our foreign importations are shipped 

 almost entirely when they are in the 

 larval (young) or pupal (quiescent) stage 

 and are placed in cold storage during 

 transit. 



The intricacies of cold storaging insect 

 species would require chapters to even 

 begin to explain the various processes and, 

 all told, it is a subject that does not lend 



Fig. 4. Dipterous l*arasite of the Cottony 

 Cushion Scale iCn/ptochaetum iceryae Will. 

 [Family Agromyzidae]. Lestophonus iceryae 

 Will.). The adults of this very beneficial 

 insect are exceedingly small two-winged flies 

 about one-sixteenth of an inch long. The 

 head and thorax are metallic blue and the 

 abdomen bright iridescent green. The an- 

 tennae are black : legs black or dark brown 

 with feet light ; wings grayish hyaline with 

 dark brown veins. The eggs are deposited 

 by the females in the egg sacs of the cottony 

 cushion scale and the young maggots feed 

 upon the eggs of this pest. The entire life 

 history is passed within the protecting sac 

 of the host, the adults emerging as b.y 

 magic from the masses of the scale. This 

 fly is practically confined to the citrus- 

 growing sections of Southern California and 

 is more often found in Los Angeles, Orange 

 and San Diego counties. Wliile it is not as 

 consistent and reliable in its work upon the 

 cottony cushion scale as are the ladybird 

 beetles (Novius cardinaKs and N. Koebelei) 

 yet its work is often phenomenal. Certainl.v 

 its rearing and distribution is well worth 

 while. 



Fig. 5. Black Ladybird Beetle (Rliizobius ven- 

 tralis Er. ). The adults are smaller than 

 those of the common red ladybird ; rather 

 oval in shape : black and covered with fine 

 hairs which give them a grayish appearance. 

 The abdomen is salmon colored. The young 

 are dark brown or black and covered with 

 many spines. The eggs are deposited singly 

 or a few at a place among the egg masses 

 of mealy bugs, under the bodies of the black 

 scale or among other scale insects. The 

 numbers of the host are so great that the 

 actual good done is not so marked as in the 

 cases of many other predators. The adults 

 move little except when annoyed. This 

 species was imported by Albert Koebele. es- 

 pecially as an enemy of black scale (Sais- 

 setia olcae). The young feed upon the eggs 

 of the black scale, mealy bugs, hemispherical 

 scale and other similar Insects. 



