34 



PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



Another enemy of the black scale was imported in 1901. It is a 

 small moth, Erastria scitula Ramb. (fig. 8), the larva of which feeds 

 in the bodies of mature scales, each larva destroying a number of 

 scales. An effort had been made by Riley to import this insect from 

 France in 1892, but without success. In 1901 Berlese sent the senior 

 author living pupae, which were at once forwarded to Craw and 

 Ehrhorn in California. It was reported in 1902 that the insects had 

 been reared and liberated in Santa Clara, Los An- 

 geles, and Niles, Cal., but if the species was estab- 

 lished in the State it has not flourished and has 

 not recently been found. 



A similar lepidopterous insect, TJialpocJiares coc- 

 ciphaga Meyrick, was brought over from Australia 

 in the summer of 1892 by Koebele and left by 

 him at Hay wards, Cal., but the species evidently 



died out. 



The Hawaiian Work. 



In 1893 Koebele resigned from the service of 

 'ZJZZfX the State of California and entered the employ- 

 enlarged. (From ment of the then newly established Hawaiian Re- 

 public for the purpose of traveling in different 

 countries and collecting beneficial insects to be introduced into 

 Hawaii for the purpose of destroying injurious insects. Before 

 leaving California he had introduced a very capable ladybird, Crypto- 

 Is&mus montrouzieri Muls., which feeds upon mealy bugs of the genus 



■y^ 



f Jb 



Fig. 8.— Erastria scitula, an imported enemy of the black scale: a, Larva from below; b, same, from 

 above; c, same, in case; d, case of full-grown larva; e, pupa; /, moth. Enlarged. (After, Rou- 

 zaud.) • 



Pseudococcus. This insect flourished, especially in southern Cali- 

 fornia, and on arrival in Hawaii he found that coffee plants and 

 certain other trees were on the point of being totally destroyed by 

 the allied scale insect known as Pulvinaria psidii Mask. He at 



