240 



SCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 216. 



In 1883 Dr. Riley succeeded iu importing 

 a common European parasite of the im- 

 ported cabbage worm into this country, 

 where it establislied itself and has since 

 proved to be a valuable addition to our fauna. 



In 1891 the same distinguished entomol- 

 ogist brought about the importation of one 

 of the European parasites of the Hessian 

 fly through the assistance of Mr. Fred. 

 Enock, of London. This parasite main- 

 tained itself in this country certainly as 

 late as 1895, but has accomplished no ap- 

 preciable good, so far as has been ascertained, 

 in limiting the increase of this destructive 

 enemy to wheat. 



All previous experiments of this nature 

 were dwarfed into insignificance by the as- 

 tounding success of the importation of Novkis 

 ( Vedalia) cardinalis, a ladybird beetle, from 

 Australia into California in 1889. This 

 importation was made, as will be remem- 

 bered, by Mr. Albert Koebele, an attache 

 of the Division of Entomology of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, whose ex- 

 penses, however, were paid out of a fund 

 appropriated to the Department of State, 

 for the purpose of securing a representation 

 from this country at the Melbourne Expo- 

 sition. A California man, the late Mr. 

 Frank McCoppin, happened to be at the 

 head of the Exposition Commission ; and, 

 while the late Dr. C. V. Eiley was endeav- 

 oring in Washington to induce the Depart- 

 ment of State to set aside a sum, from the 

 Exposition fund, for the expenses of Mr. 

 Koebele, representatives of the State Board 

 of Horticulture of California were pressing 

 the same facts upon Mr. McCoppin, the 

 head of the Commission. These efforts 

 were being made independently and with- 

 out consultation, hence it happened that 

 after Mr. Koebele had succeeded in sending 

 live Vedalias to California, and after these 

 insects, by their rapid multiplication and 

 voracious habits, had absolutely destroyed 

 the cottony cushion scale in the orange 



groves of the State, a result which prac- 

 tically saved millions of dollars to Califor- 

 nia, and which attracted the attention of 

 everyone interested in science or agricul- 

 ture, a most unfortunate controversy en- 

 sued between Dr. Eiley and the California 

 State Board of Horticulture as to the placing 

 of the credit of carrying out this wonder- 

 fully successful experiment. This contro- 

 versy embittered the last days of both Dr. 

 Riley and Mr. McCoppin, and was the cause 

 of a disturbance of the formerly pleasant 

 relations between the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the State Board of 

 Horticulture of California, which has only 

 recently been overcome. 



Following this successful experiment, the 

 same insect, Novius cardinalis, was sent to 

 South Africa, where it exterminated the 

 white or fluted scale in that colon j'. The 

 next year it was sent to Egypt, where it 

 exterminated a congeneric scale insect in 

 the gardens of Alexandria. 



The following year Mr. Koebele, still an 

 agent of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, was sent with the 'consent of 

 the Honorable Jeremiah Rusk, but at the 

 expense of the California State Board of 

 Horticulture, to Australia, New Zealand 

 and the Fiji Islands, for the purpose, of 

 securing other valuable beneficial insects 

 for importation into California. Thousands 

 of such insects, comprising a number of 

 different species, nearly all, however, of 

 them Coccinellids, or ladybirds, were sent 

 over and established in California. Several 

 of these species are still living in different 

 parts of the State. The overwhelming suc- 

 cess of the importation of Novius cardinalis- 

 was not repeated, but one of the insects 

 brought over at that time, namely, Rhizobius 

 ventralis, has unquestionably ridden many 

 olive groves of the destructive black scale, 

 and is to-day present in many other orchards 

 in such numbers that the scale practically 

 makes no headway. 



