146 



in some parts, and Chrysops and Culex have been troublesome as usual in Wet Mount- 

 ain Valley. Mr. H. G. Smith, jr., has sent Anthomyia brassicce from Denver, with a 

 note that it injured turnips ; and earlier in the year the same crop at Denver was re- 

 ported to suffer from the attacks of Phyllotreta pusilla Horn, specimens of which were 

 sent. In Wet Mountain Valley P. pusilla is common, but seems to confine itself to 

 wild plants. Aphis brassicce has been complained of in some parts as injuring cab- 

 bages. Carpocapsa pomonella is apparently well established and destructive in south- 

 ern Colorado, to judge from apples in the market, though it is not so injurious here 

 as it has been in other parts of America. 



Of Orthoptera, Mr. W. P. Lowe has sent Diaplieromera from Pueblo County, but it 

 seems to be rare. The sparrow-hawk does excellent service in keeping down Ortho- 

 ptera. One shot on the Sangre de Cristo Range had its stomach full of what appeared 

 to be Camnula pellucida var. obiona, and one from Pueblo County had remains of Ana- 

 brus in its stomach. 



Musca domestica ranks as a first-class nuisance in Wet Mountain Valley, swarming 

 in houses and getting into everything. A blow-fly (Lucilia) is a great pest in the 

 earlier part of the year. 



Heliothis armigera is abundant in Custer County, but apparently harmless. 



Agrotis saucia is also common. 



A box of crackers from Denver was found badly infested with small larvae, almost 

 certainly of a species of Ephestia. — [Theo. D. A. Cockerell, Westcliffe, Custer County, 

 Colo., October 2, 1889. 



Spraying for Black Scale in California. 



* * * Since I wrote you last I have taken up the study of scale insects — not 

 very scientifically, but in an extremely practical and disagreeable way — that is, ex- 

 perimenting with a solution for their destruction and the disinfecting of orchards on 

 contract. I have already sprayed and contracted to spray over half the orchards in 

 the country, and people have actually begun to consider me an authority on "bugs." 

 * * * I only took up the subject with the view of clearing our own orchard, and 

 I did it. There is a little satisfaction in clearing black scales off an orchard so black 

 and covered with scales that you can scarcely see wood or leaves, and the fruit so 

 smutty it has to be scrubbed before you can market it— and that is the condition of 

 some of the orchards close to the sea. I have a good machine, one I built myself (I 

 could not buy one large enough), but am not satisfied with it. I believe a small 

 petroleum engine might be made to do the pumping cheaper and better than a man. 

 It is a powerful force-pump, mounted on a sheet-iron tank, on a wagon, and has four 

 sprays on the ends of 8-foot rods; so it takes six men to keep it going. * * * — [Har- 

 vey C. Stiles, Helix, San Diego County, Cal., September 26, 1889. 



The Australian Ladybird in New Zealand. 



I have been searching closely in places where Icerya were and where they were de x -> 

 voured by swarms of these beetles, and I can not find a trace of them in any stage. 

 The specimens I brought here with me refused every scale insect I could find and 

 every aphide, and they all died of starvation except those I turned loose, and these I 

 can not find now. At first I thought they would eat C. cacti, but they merely tasted 

 it. It is very likely these beetles came over from Australia in the ovisacs, as we im- 

 port a good many trees from thence; and, if so, it would account for two things: 

 First (as but few would come in that way), for their being so long in gaining head 

 against their prey, and, second, for their existence in districts only, many districts 

 having imported independently of the others. But what is occupying me just now 

 is not being able to find what else they feed upon, and Mr Koebele now repeats what 

 he told me in Auckland, that he found them feeding upon Icerya and nothing else. 

 I think you will find that Icerya will not be easily eradicated altogether, and will 



