31 



ber should be used for the hose, since the ordinary rubber hose is 

 attacked by the bisulphide. The Yermorel pulverisateur can not be 

 used for the reason that bisulphide attacks the composition of the 

 diaphragm and the small leather valves. This mixture has also been 

 found effective against other scales. The passage of a law is urged 

 which shall enable the administration to take prompt measures in a 

 case of insect outbreak. 



The writer's first knowledge of this outbreak was in September, 189G, 

 when he received a letter from Senhor Armando da Silva, accompanied 

 by a copy of an article which he had published in the Correio da ^soite 

 of September 10. Senhor da Silva wrote to ask for advice as to the 

 most efficacious means of fighting the insect in America and for refer- 

 ences to the literature on the life history of the insect and its allies. 

 We replied under date of October 1, 1896, urging him to make an 

 effort to introduce Novius (Yedalia) cardinalis. In February, 1897, 

 Senhor da Silva sent specimens of the Icerya, which we were able to 

 determine as undoubtedly I. purchasi, and we addressed him again on 

 the subject of the importation of Novius cardinalis, offering to secure 

 specimens for Portugal through the State Board of Horticulture of 

 California. While awaiting his reply we received a communication 

 from Senhor Le Oocq, with whom Senhor da Silva had been in com- 

 munication and with whom our subsequent correspondence was carried 

 on. In the meantime Senhor da Silva had published in the last num- 

 ber of the volume for 1896 of the "Annaes de Sciencias Naturaeas" an 

 extended article in which he gave an account of the work of Novius 

 cardinalis in this country and urged its introduction. Curiously 

 enough this publication, as we have recently learned from an editorial 

 in u O Jornal de Lisboa"for September 7, 1898, was considered by many 

 prominent persons as based upon untrustworthy evidence and American 

 brag [reclame], and it even seems that there were a few who insinuated 

 in an agricultural review that the whole article was simply an inter- 

 ested petition for a commission to be sent to Australia! Undaunted, 

 however, by this home opposition, Senhor Le Cocq took up his corre- 

 spondence with this office, aud in October, 1897, tbe writer was able to 

 secure, through the great kindness of the State Board of Horticulture 

 of California, about sixty specimens of Novius cardinalis, in the adult 

 condition, and some larvre, as well as a number of specimens of Novius 

 Tioebelei. These were sent by direct mail from Washington, packed in 

 moss, with a plentiful supply of Iceryas as food, just as they had been 

 received from Mr. Alexander Craw, of San Francisco. But five of the 

 Yedalias reached Portugal alive. These issued from the moss as adults 

 and had quite certainly come from the specimens which left America 

 in the larval condition. All of those which started from here as adults 

 were dead. They were at once placed in glass jars at the Chemical- 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Lisbon, and were so successfully 

 cared for that at the date when Senhor Le Cocq wrote his December 



