— — — Z5 



ted witli ;i Bpocies of leaf-hopper | Teltigonia sp.). A careful examination of the tree 

 did not reveal any other insect, with the exception of an occasional Aphis, upon 



which the larva- were :ilso observed to feed on orange. Mr. Tcpper, of Adelaide, 

 informed me that he had observed these insects feeding upon leaf-hoppers at Kan- 

 garoo Island, where the beetles are very numerous. Mr. Olliff, in "Agricultural 

 Gazette of New Sonth Wales," vol. 2, p. 65, mentions the green aphis of the apple 

 {Aphis mah) and the Red Scale, upon which the full-grown larva- feed. Mr. Tryon 

 was the first who reported this and other Orcus as being voracious feeders upon 

 scale insects. No doubt the larva- will also feed upon Mylilaspis Gloveri Pack, and 

 Chionaspis <itri Comst., infesting the citrus trees in Australia. The beetle with us 

 may be expected to feed upon most of the scales, and. as it is the largest species in- 

 troduced, the work that the larvae are able to accomplish when once numerous will 

 be astonishing. 



On my recent southern trip the insect was found numerous upon the Black Scale 

 :-.T Mr. Cooper's place, near Santa Barbara, and it is also doing well with me upon 

 prune trees infested with Aspidiotus perniciosua Comst. A few specimens were placed 

 upon these trees on May 14. 1892, by Mr. Alexander Craw. I liberated a number of 

 these beetles at Haywards, Alameda County, during August. These were collected 

 at Parramatta, beginning of July, all hibernating together in two hatches in an out- 

 house under roof. Out of about one hundred and fifty specimens but four had died 

 when liberated. The insect is preyed upon in Australia by the same natural enemies 

 mentioned as attacking 0. chalybeus, the Homalotylus probably destroying more of 

 these larvae. 



Orcus nummeralis Boisd. — Mr. Crotch in his "Revision of Coccinellida>, ,, p. 189, 

 says. "This is a rare variety of 0. anstralasia, in which the posterior spots are 

 divided." The insect is uniformly smaller, judging from the large numbers seen, 

 and the larva- of the two species are not alike. 



I found the insect first at Whitton, Xew South Wales. December, 1891. in larva-. 

 pupae, and imago state, feeding upon an •• Acanthococcid, Gosayparta ot Ehisoo 



Maskell). Knowing that the insects would feed upon some of our Coccids and 

 surely upon the Black Scale, I was anxious to introduce the same, and in this instance 

 only collet ted all the larva-, pupa-, and imagoes that could be found and sent them 

 to Mr. Coquillett, with the request, "only to open the box in a closed room, as some 

 larvae were infested with parasites, which would be destructive to all our coccinellid 

 larvae; *' and at the same time he was requested to breed the insects in glass jars to 

 avoid all danger of introducing such a deadly enemy to our most beneficial insects. 

 Indeed, the injury and loss to the country that would follow such introduction could 

 not be estimated: in fact, the whole outlook to tight our scale pests successfully with 

 these most effective enemies would be at an end. As a last, but not encouraging 

 hope of much good, we could introduce the secondary parasites. I could not learn 

 anything in regard to those insects from Mr. Coquillett, except that "tbej were 

 dead" to one and "they would not feed." to another inquiry. 



The same Initio were found later (April 6-11, 1892) at Toowoomba, Queensland. 

 upon orange infested with Black and Red Scales, and three or four specimens only 

 w.re sent to Mr. Cooper. It but out- of these had been a female 1 venture to say th ) 

 insecl is introduced in California. 



Orcus bilanulatus Boisd. — This beetle was found numerous at Harwood, Clarence 

 River, New Smith Wales, feeding on Erioccus conspersus Mask., upon Ctuuarina sp 

 Numerous empty pnpse cases were found attached to the Leaves, and but two larvae 

 could he found which were not full grown. As these trees are high and inaccessible 

 toi collecting, no doubt these were present in numbers and could not he seen. One 

 pupa found was bred. Two specimens collected on the Tweed River, January it;. 



1VL'. were hit in a bottle and both were --till Living when I came across them on 



February 11, 1892, having been kept in a room during this time. This is the onl] 

 instance \\ her. insects could he kept li\ ing so long without any food, the usual time 



