32 



article there was already a numerous progeny. All of the specimens 

 of Novius koebelei were dead on receipt. 



On the 22d of November a second colony of the two species of pred- 

 atory beetles was received from California. Inasmuch as the mail 

 packet before had gone in a somewhat roundabout way, an attempt 

 was made this time to hasten the journey. The writer took the packet 

 personally to New York and placed it on cold storage awaiting the 

 arrival of the direct steamer to Lisbon. Unfortunately the arrival of 

 the steamer in New York was very considerably delayed, and upon its 

 arrival in Lisbon it left for Porto immediately after the disembarkation 

 of its passengers, and only on its return to Lisbon, December 19, was 

 the packet containing the insects delivered to Senhor Le Cocq. The 

 packet had left California on the 5th of November, so that it had been 

 forty-four days on the journey. There were still alive, however, one 

 male and five females of N. cardinalis, aud owing to the great care 

 which was taken of them they survived and multiplied. All specimens 

 of JV. koebelei, as before, were dead, from which it seems that the former 

 resists these long voyages in hermetically sealed boxes better than the 

 latter. 



As to the further results of the experiment we can do no better than 

 to quote the words of Senhor Le Cocq in the "Archivo Rural" of June 

 28. The article has been translated from the Portuguese by Mr. Frank 

 Benton, of this office. 



In No. 24 of the "Archivo Rural/' published in December, 1897, we told our readers 

 what we had doue to introduce into Portugal Vedalia cardinalis, which is the most 

 voracious enemy of Icerya purchasi, and what we had obtained and hoped to obtain 

 up to spring in order then to commence its reproduction and breeding in the open 

 air. Now we see that we were then very modest in our calculation, because four 

 mouths later, in place of hundreds of Vedalias that we counted on having, we pos- 

 sessed already many thousands of the insects, and we were able to think of entering 

 simultaneously upon its breeding on a large scale in the open air and its distribution 

 in the localities invaded by Icerya. 



In order that our readers may form an idea as to the fecundity of Vedalia cardinalis, 

 it will suffice to state that our entire breedings were all descendants of the six insects 

 received on the 19th of December — that is, from the second sending that Mr. L. O. 

 Howard made me. 



During this new apprenticeship we had occasion to try various modes of breeding 

 the Vedalias in glass jars, and that which gave us the best result — the only one which 

 we still follow to-day and that has also been adopted in the chemical-agricultural 

 station of Lisbon, is the following: Small tables (tablets) of pasteboard are made, 

 which, flat side up, pass into glass jars, leaving some space around them, the jars 

 being cylindrical and tall; to each of the tablets there are glued four legs made of 

 the same material, 2 to 3 cm. high and triangular. To give sufficient firmness to these 

 legs each one is folded from the top to the middle of the base in the form of a piece 

 of guttering, and is glued by the base to the lower side of the tablet near the cor- 

 ners, with the vertex down. On these tablets, which are flat, there is glued an 

 octave-shaped piece of paper whose edges, extending the breadth and length of the 

 cardboard, are folded up so as to form sides around the tablets. 



It is ou these small tables that, once or twice a week, a fresh repast of Iceryas is 

 furnished to the Vedalias contained in each jar, the new tablets being placed above 



