406 



Biology in America 



to them that in the native home of the scale might perchance 

 be found some natural enemy, which if introduced into Cal- 

 ifornia might drive out, or at least hold in check the terrible 

 scale. And so one of them journeyed to Australia and there 

 he found the ladybird beetle, Vedalia, which preyed upon the 

 scale. And this he brought back with him to California, 



THE PITIFUL LADYBIRD 



a, Beetle; b, larva; c, pupa; d, blossom end of pear, showing scales 

 with larvae of ladybird feeding on them, and pupae of ladybird attached 

 within the calyx. From Quaintance, "The San Jose" Scale and its Con- 

 trol/' Farmers' Bulletin, No. 650. 



. Courtesy of the U. 8. Bureau of Entomology. 



where it throve; and making war upon the scale it has ever 

 since held it in check, delivering the orange and the lemon 

 from their threatened destruction. 



Similar attempts have been made for several years in the 

 war on the brown-tail and gypsy moths, which are so destruc- 

 tive to fruit and shade trees in New England, and while the 

 results have been less spectacular than in the case of the 



