Oct., '06] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 29I 



On the parasites of Diaspis pentagona* 

 By L. O. Howard, Washington, D. C. 



Diaspis pentagona has long- been a resident of the District of 

 Columbia, surely since 1892, when it was discovered on the 

 grounds of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (Insect Life, 

 vi, 287). Its prevalence in Italy upon the mulberry tree ren- 

 ders it a very dangerous enemy of the silk industry in that 

 country, and Italian entomologists, notably the late Professor 

 Targioni Tozzetti and Professor Antonio Berlese, have long 

 sought means of eradicating it. In the absence of records of 

 parasitism it was not at first thought to be at all feasible to 

 utilize its natural enemies. In the summer of 1905, however, 

 Professor Berlese urged the writer, in Florence, to send to 

 Italy branches of trees infested by the Diaspis from America 

 in the hope that parasites might be reared. Curiously enough, 

 this scale does not seem to attack mulberry in the United States, 

 and on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture there 

 existed, until within a short time, a peach tree literally covered 

 with the scale, within a hundred yards of mulberry trees which 

 did not become infested. In the spring of 1906, during the 

 writer's absence on a second trip to Europe, Mr. Marlatt 

 secured a number of branches of lilac from the District of 

 Columbia all abundantly infested by the scale, and sent them, 

 carefully packed, to Professor Berlese. From these scales were 

 bred in Florence three species of parasites: the first, Tetra- 

 stichus canadensis Ashmead ; the second, Prospalta murtfeldtii 

 Howard, and the third, a new species of Prospalta. On the 

 writer's return to Washington at the end of May other 

 branches were taken from the same tree, and rearing experi- 

 ments were begun here. More than 200 specimens of the new 

 species of Prospalta have been reared, 25 to 50 specimens of 

 Ablerus clisiocampae Ashmead, and two specimens of Peris- 

 sopterus piilchellns Howard. We have, then, four species of 

 primary parasites of Diaspis pentagona to place on record, as 

 follows : 



(1) Prospalta berlesei n. sp. One specimen reared in Flor- 

 ence by Professor Antonio Berlese from scales sent from Wash- 



