16 



purpose of ascertaining if they were capable of freeing this one tree of 

 the Eed Scales ; but after waiting several months he found that the 

 ladybirds had not made any appreciable headway against the Scales, 

 the latter being quite as numerous as they were at the time the lady- 

 birds were first confined in the tent with them. 



In the early part of May, 1890, I found two of these ladybirds to 

 the underside of whose bodies was attached a fungus growth of a yel- 

 lowish color and very noticeable even to the naked eye. These speci- 

 mens were submitted to Dr. Eoland Tkaxter, the Mycologist of the 

 Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who has made a special 

 study of these low forms of plant life, and he ascertained that this 

 yellowish fungus belonged to a new genus and species which he has 

 since characterized under the name of Hesperomyces virescens. It is not 

 probable that this fungus would ultimately have caused the death of 

 the Ladybirds, since Dr. Thaxter writes as follows concerning the 

 members of the group to which it belongs : 



The LaboulbeniacesB constitute a small group of very peculiar and minute forms 

 which have been placed by De Bary among the doubtful Ascomycetes. Their para- 

 sitism is an external one, which apparently results in little, if any, inconvenience 

 to the host, each individual being fixed by a pedicellate attachment to the legs, 

 thorax, or other portion of the affected insect. (Memoirs Boston Society Natural 

 History, Vol. iv, p. 135.) 



Another ladybird whose larva I have found feeding upon the Eed 

 Scale is an undetermined species of Scymnus, closely related to Scym- 

 nus marginicollis Mann., but having a distinct metallic, somewhat 

 brassy tinge upon the wing cases. This ladybird measures less than 

 an eighth of an inch in length ; the head and thorax are of a light red- 

 dish color, the wing cases black, with a slight brassy tinge and thickly 

 covered with rather short, light-colored hairs. Its larva has never 

 been described so far as I am aware. It is of the same general form as 

 the other ladybird larvae, being broadest at the middle and somewhat 

 tapering toward each end. The color varies from a brownish gray to 

 olive brown, and in the younger individuals even to a blackish brown. 

 In the middle of the back on segments from 4 to 7 is a lighter, 

 somewhat pinkish stripe, darkest in the middle, and on the front part 

 of segment 4 it is encroached upon by the dark ground color. There 

 is sometimes a whitish stripe on each side of segments 2 and 3. 

 Low down on each side of the body are two rows of black warts sit- 

 uated on whitish spots, each wart giving forth a cluster of several short 

 whitish bristles. On the back are two rows of similar but much smaller 

 warts, those on segments 4 to 7 being light-colored. The head is 

 brownish gray, with the sides more blackish. The full-grown larva 

 measures about one-seventh of an inch in length. When about to as- 

 sume the pupa form it attaches the posterior extremity of its body to 

 some convenient object and after a short time the skin splits open at 

 the front end and is gradually worked backwards until it covers only 



