142 



TToiild set to make Iialf a crop. As usual, liowever. in such years tlie 

 number of insects produced by the full crop of tlie preceding year lias 

 been so great as to totally ruin the crop vrlierever spraying lias not been 

 resorted to. 



SrCCESS OF A TZDALIA OIPORTATIOX. 



We liave already noted tlie fact tliat a sending of Vedalia cardinaliSj 

 Trhicli ^e made tlirougli Mr. Coquillett to Br. Locking of Xelson, 

 Xe^ Zealand. tvIio liad been designated to ns by Mr. E. Allan Wiglit, 

 arrived in good condition, ^^e learn from the Xeir Zealand Farmer of 

 Augnist. 1S92. tliat tlie insects multiplied very rapidly, ate all of tlie 

 Iceryas tliat ^vere present at tlie original point of colonization and then 

 migTated to tlie neighboring gardens, clearing off the Iceryas as they 

 ti^aveled. The success of this exiieriment was as marked in a small way 

 as was the California importation. 



Since receiving this numlier of the Xeic Zealand Farmer we have 

 had the pleastu^e of a letter fi^:»m Mr. Wight giving further details. 

 TVe quote a portion of the letter referring to this matter, and a second 

 paragraph referring to Mr. Wight's own sending of Vedalia from, a local- 

 ity of gTcat abundance at Whangarei. together with some comments 

 nijon the new Vedalia mentioned on page 2S9 of the last volume of 

 I:n^si:ct Life. Mr. VTight's exi)lanation concerning the new siiecies is 

 ingeniouo but it will require an examination from a trained student of 

 the CoccinellidLe to settle the matter. 



Dr. Locting gave me a full acconnt of your last successful sending of Tedalia to 

 yelson. and I have also, since then, sent them a large consigament from Wliangarei, 

 T\-liere I fonnd Them in millions. The Xelson people have held a meeting, at which 

 you have heen very warmly thanked for your great Mndness. and they have written 

 to inform me that leery a is very fast disappearing from their orange and lemon trees 

 that were dying hefore. * * * 



I think I mentioned that I had successfally sent boxes of Vedalia cardinaJis xoSevr 

 South Wales. Victoria, and all over Xew Zealand. The harvest I found at Whangarei 

 was a rich one. sonietinies a single shake brought over 200 into my umbrella. I 

 found that there were always a few^ Icerya eggs, those immediately under the 

 mother scale, that w^ere imbedded in so flufly a cotton that the little beetles could 

 not get at them, although starving, and ;Mt. French found that those I sent him 

 tried to eat the mealy bug (Dactylopius) and cotild not do so. becanse the fluff clung 

 round their legs and jaws. I also found that a large j^roportion of the females came 

 out of the pupa red, without the black markings. I had often observed (as long 

 ago as 1832-"^ > that certain Lepidoptera were deficient in the black markings and 

 that these were insects exposed to the stm in the pupa stage, and I always found the 

 deficiency most marked where I had bred the insects in wooden boxes (in the dark;. 

 I tried the experiment with Tedalia and I found similar results, also most of those 

 I sent to Mr. Ollifi' were in the pupa state (in dark boxes), and he had a great num- 

 ber of specimens of these badly marked ones. The female pupa exposes more of 

 its inmate to the stm than the male, the weather, when I collected, was also very 

 cloudy. Mr. Ollifi' has taken these for an nndescribed species and named them Xor- 

 ius iritjfitii. taking Mnlsant's original genus, and giving me credit for a new species, 

 but I think that he is wrong, and that it is just as I explain, but what struck me is 



