36 
The next paper was read by Mr. Howard: 
THE ORIGINAL HOME OF THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
By L. O. Howarp and C. L. Maruatr, Washington, D. C. 
The suggestion that Japan may be the original home of the San Jose 
scale has been made several times in the last few years and has come 
to receive a fairly general acceptance. How positively this claim has 
been put forth is shown in the suggestive and interesting paper entitled 
‘*Some Economic Features of International Entomology,” by Mr. F. M. 
Webster, published in the Annual Report of the Entomological Society 
of Ontario for 1898, in which he uses the following words: “ The San 
Jose scale * * * is in all probability another contribution from 
the Palearctic region, as I have been able to prove almost conclusively 
that it came to us from Japan.” The object of the present paper is to 
bring together the evidence on which this belief rests, and to determine 
the value of this evidence. 
It will be remembered that the detailed bulletin on this insect, pre- 
pared by the writers and published as No.5, New Series, Division of 
Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, the subject of the 
origin of the San Jose scale was fully discussed, and after showing that 
the theory that it is native to either Chile or Hawaii lacks basis, the 
conclusion was reached that, while the insect might prove to be indig- 
enous to Australia, it may also have come from Japan, China, or some 
other portion of eastern Asia, or perhaps from some of the islands in 
the Pacific. 
In discussing the possibility that Australia may be the original home 
of this pest Mr. Maskell] was quoted as expressing the belief that this 
insect was introduced into Australia from Japan. His reason for this 
was the rather insufficient one that within the last few years many 
Japanese fruit trees have been imported into Australia. In view of 
this possibility, Mr. Koebele, on starting for Asia in 1895, was requested 
by one of us te make a very careful examination for this scale in the 
course of his work in both Japan and China. Mr.-Koebele, as every 
one knows, is one of the best of collectors and observers, and was per- 
fectly familiar with this and other scale insects, yet after all of his efforts 
he returned to Hawaii and reported that he had been unable to find 
the San Jose seale either in Japan orin China. Moreover, Mr. Otoji 
Takahashi, a skilled entomologist who had studied scale insects under 
Comstock at Cornell University, was commissioned by the Division of 
Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, in the fall of 1892, to 
collect injurious insects in Japan. He collected a number of scale 
insects, but in no case did he find the San Jose scale. Down to this 
point, therefore, evidence in favor of Japan as the original home is 
entirely lacking. 
In Bulletin No. 6, Technical Series, of this Division, The San Jose 
Scale and Its Nearest Allies, Professor Cockerell expresses the opinion 
