26 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



mentioned. During the winter of 1887-88 preparations were being 

 made for an exhibit of the United States at the Melbourne Exposi- 

 tion, to be held during 1888, and Prof. Riley, after interviewing the 

 Secretary of State, who had charge of the funds appropriated for the 

 exposition, was enabled to send an assistant, Mr. Albert Koebele, to 

 Australia at the expense of this fund. This result was hastened, and 

 Mr. Koebele's subsequent labors were aided by the fact that the 

 commissioner general of the United States to the exposition was a 

 California man, Mr. Frank McCoppin, and his recommendation, joined 

 to that of Prof. Riley, decided the Secretary of State in favor of the 

 movement. In order to partially compensate the exposition authori- 

 ties for this expenditure, another assistant in the Division of Ento- 

 mology, Prof. F. M. Webster, was sent out to make a special report to 

 the commission on the agricultural features of the exposition. Mr. 

 Koebele, who sailed from San Francisco August 25, 1888, was thor- 

 oughly familiar with all the phases of the investigation of the cottony 

 cushion scale, and had for some time been stationed in California 

 working for the Department of Agriculture. His salary was con- 

 tinued by the department and his expenses only were paid by the 

 Melbourne Exposition fund. He made several sendings of the Les- 

 tophonus parasite to the station of the Division of Entomology of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Los Angeles, where, under the charge 

 of Mr. D. W. Coquillett, a tent had been erected over a tree abun- 

 dantly infested with the scale insect; but it was soon found that the 

 Lestophonus was not an effective parasite. 



On October 15 Mr. Koebele found the famous ladybird (Vedalia) 

 Novius cardinalis in North Adelaide, and at once came to the con- 

 clusion that this insect would prove effective if introduced into the 

 United States. His first shipments were small, but others continued 

 from that date until January, 1889, when he sailed for New Zealand 

 and made further investigations. Carrying with him large supplies 

 of Vedalia cardinalis, the effective ladybird enemy, he arrived in San 

 Francisco on March 18, and on March 20 they were liberated under 

 the tent at Los Angeles, where previous specimens which had survived 

 the voyage by mail had also been placed. 



The ladybird larvse attacked the first scale insect they met upon 

 being liberated from the packing cages. Twenty-eight specimens had 

 been received on November 30 by Mr. Coquillett, 44 on December 29, 

 57 on January 24, and on April 12 the sending out of colonies was 

 begun, so rapid had been the breeding of the specimens received alive 

 from Australia. By June 12 nearly 11,000 specimens had been sent 

 out to 208 different orchardists, and in nearly ev^ery case the colonizing 

 of the insect proved successful. In the original orchard practically 

 all of the scale insects were killed before August, 1889, and, in his 

 annual report for that year, submitted December 31, Prof. Riley 





