/ 312 Flashlights on Nature 



may often find on the rind of certain import( 

 oranges. But an enemy to the scale-insect \v 

 discovered in AustraHa — an enemy to the seal 

 insect, and therefore an ally of the harassed orang 

 grower. It was a particular kind of ladybir 

 which devours in its larval stage whole tribes 

 the scale-insects. That wonderful entomologi; 

 Professor Riley, whose services were worth mar 

 millions of pounds to the American farmers, g 

 wind betimes of this new destroyer, and importe 

 a few specimens, actually sending a skilled age 

 to Australia to collect them. The precious litt 

 creatures were housed at once in a muslin ter 

 covering a scale-infested orange tree ; and ther 

 rising to a sense of the duty imposed upon ther 

 they laid their eggs on the leaves with commem 

 able promptitude. The larva? soon hatched 01 

 and began feeding upon the scale-insects ; and 

 an incredibly short time there were beetles enou^ 

 on that single tree to distribute by boxfuls amoi 

 the distressed agriculturists. The result was th 

 before very long the scale-insect became a ra 

 specimen in California. But that was in t 

 United States ; English folk are too " practica 

 to take any notice of those theoretical men 

 science. They put their hands in their pock( 

 and let their crops get destroyed in the good c 

 " practical " way ; then they shake their heads a 

 observe with a smile that " there are great di 

 culties" in the way of doing anything. 



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