128 



species, originally collected by Mr. Koebele near Sydney, Xew Sonth 

 Wales (see Bull. Xo. 21, Di\ision of Entomology, p. 24), turned up the 

 present year in a rather amusing way. In the March number of 

 Untomologieal Xeics (vol. in, 1892, p. 51), Dr. F. E. Blaisdell describes 

 a nevr Californian Scymnus under the name of S. lophantlicv. He found 

 it preying on the San Jose Scale {Aspldiotus ^erniciosus), Tvhich infested 

 the limbs of Acacia Jojyhanthce at the Coronado Parks, near San Diego 

 in southern California. It is a very inconspicuous species of reddish 

 color, the thorax often having an Id definite dark spot on the disk, and 

 the eh'tra being of a blackish bronze color. The last-mentioned char- 

 acter is foreign to our native species of Scymnus, which never show any 

 trace of metallic color, and, for this reason. I at once suspected, upon 

 reading the description, that S. lopliantluv was one of the species in- 

 troduced from Australia. Upon comi^aring Dr. Blaisdell's description 

 with the sami^le specimens sent by 3Ir. Koebele fi^om his first and 

 second trips to Australia, I had no difficulty in identitMng iS'. lopJianthce 

 with the species from Sydney mentioned above. Subsequently Mr. 

 D. W. CoquiUett sent me a specimen, recently captured near Los 

 Angeles, which fully confirmed this identification. TThether or not the 

 species has been i)reviously described from Austraha I have no special 

 means of knowing, but it does not appear to be among those described 

 by Mr. Blackburn in 1889. (Trans., etc., Eoyal Soc. South Australia, vol. 

 XI, pp. 191-198.) It is closely allied to S.fagus Brown, irom ^ew Zea- 

 land, and distinguished therefrom only by its finer and sparser eh^tral 

 punctations and the greater extent of the pale thoracic color. 



Dr. Blaisdell does not mention in his description the structm^al char- 

 acters of the species, the more important of which are as follows : 

 Prosternal lines long, straight, and slightly converging anteriorly; 

 post-mesocoxal line slightly reasceuding externally; post-metacoxal 

 line comx)lete, almost reaching the first abdominal suture; elytral 

 epipleurae horizontal, reaching beyond third abdominal segment, 

 slightly concave; inner marginal line not leaving the margin. 



The beetle and its larva are quite abundant in the Coronado parks, 

 according to Dr. Blaisdell; and since it also occurs near Los Angeles, 

 there can be no doubt that this useful little CoccineUid has fuUy es- 

 tablished itself in southern California. 



This was followed by a short paper, being — 



FURTHER NOTES ON THE FOOD OF LIMAX CAMPESTRIS BINNEY. 



ByF. M. Webster, TTooster, Ohio. 



In Insect Life (vol. iv, p. 348) are given some observations of mine 

 relative to the destruction of Aphides by this mollusk. While the con- 

 clusions there reached, ^4z, '' that the instance observed was excep- 

 tional and probably does not promise any particular benefit," are per- 

 hai)s correct, yet some further observations may place the matter in a 



