150 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Beneficial insects 



Chinese lady beetles (Chilocorus similis Rossi) . The 

 specimens obtained from the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture through the kindness of Dr L. O. Howard, and liberated 

 in East Greenbush in August 1902 failed to survive the winter. 

 A second shipment of 25 was received Aug. 13, 1903, again through 

 the generosity of Dr Howard. These specimens were set at liberty 

 at Kinderhook N. Y. on the estate of Mr L. L. Morrell, who is a 

 large fruit grower. The tree selected was a large appletree badly 

 infested with San Jose" scale, near the barn and on the edge of the 

 old orchard, close to his young pear orchard. There is an abund- 

 ance of scale on the old trees, as well as. on the young, and Mr 

 Morrell has consented to refrain from treating these, in order to 

 give the imported beetles an opportunity to demonstrate their 

 value. 



An examination Sep. 23, 1903, of the appletree where these 

 insects were placed last August showed that eggs had been laid 

 and a number of young were easily found. Four adult beetles, 

 probably descendants of those originally established and nearly 

 20 larvae of varying size, from very young to nearly full grown, 

 were found in the center of the tree. This is a quite large one and 

 is very badly infested with the scale and there is every probability 

 that there are many more ladybugs on it and near-by trees than 

 were discovered, though a brief search failed to reveal any on the 

 latter. The examination was purposely limited because of the 

 difficulty of detecting the insects and the danger of crushing them 

 in crawling about on the limbs. It certainly looks as though this 

 introduction had been fully as successful as that of the preceding 

 year and it is most earnestly hoped that some will survive the 

 winter, in which event we may be able to demonstrate the utility 

 of this insect in our climate. 



Little black lady beetle (Pentilia misella Lee). This 

 little lady beetle is usually found toward the end of the season in 

 orchards infested with San Jose" scale, and we have on several 

 occasions recorded its presence in some numbers. Anything relat- 

 ing to the abundance and effectiveness of predaceous insects is of 

 interest, and it is gratifying to state that in October we found this 



