38 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



first summer there remained of the stock at Washington about 1 ,000 

 beetles. Among the colonies sent out the best success was obtained 

 in Georgia. An orchard at Marshallville in that State, containing 

 some 17,000 peach trees and covering about 85 acres, adjoined a 

 larger orchard containing about 150,000 trees, all scatteringly in- 

 fested with the scale. The ladybirds were liberated in August, 1902, 

 in the smaller orchard, and an examination made 11 months 

 later indicated that they were rapidly spreading and would soon 

 cover the orchard. The number of beetles in all stages present was 

 estimated at nearly 40,000. Colonies established in the Northern 

 States perished. In the South the almost universal adoption of the 

 cheap and satisfactory lime-sulphur washes destroyed the possi- 

 bility of rapid multiplication and destroyed the majority of the bene- 

 ficial insects. This species has not been found recently, but prob- 

 ably exists in Georgia. The introduction and establishment of the 

 species was successful, but it was practically killed out by the cheap 

 and satisfactory washes in general use. Without the washes the 

 probabilities are that the ladybird would be found at the present 

 time occurring in great numbers in southern orchards. 



The Parasites of Diaspis Pentagona Targ. 



For a number of years the mulberry plantations of Italy had 

 suffered severely from the attack of the insect known as the West 

 Indian peach scale (Diaspis pentagona Targ.). This insect occurs 

 in the United States and is widely distributed in other parts of the 

 world. In the United States, however, it is not especially injurious. 

 In 1905, at the request of Berlese, the writer sent parasitized Diaspis 

 from Washington to Florence, Italy. One of the parasites which 

 issued, Prospaltella berlesei How., was artificially reared in Florence 

 by Berlese and his assistants, and at the time of present writing has 

 been so thoroughly established in several localities that the ultimate 

 reduction of the Diaspis to harmless numbers is confidently antic- 

 ipated by Berlese. Similarly, Silvestri at Portici has introduced 

 the same species from America, and also certain ladybirds, and is 

 making the effort to import the parasites of this species from its 



entire range. 



The Work of Mr. George Compere. 



Mr. George Compere, employed jointly by Western Australia and 

 California as a searcher for beneficial insects, for several years has been 

 traveling in different parts of the world in search of beneficial insects 

 which he has either sent or brought to California and Western Aus- 

 tralia. One of the most interesting of his achievements was sending 

 living specimens of Calliephialtes messor Grav., an ichneumon fly, from 

 Spain to California. This species is a parasite of the codling moth. 



