PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 153 



work. The parasite, Calliephialies messor, belongs to the ichneumons. 

 It is quite a large insect and, when present, can be readily detected in 

 the orchard. Many colonies of this parasite have been liberated in 

 all the apple- and pear-growing sections of the State. After the second 

 season we received encouraging reports of its work, and the insect had 

 been observed in several sections on the wing. The season just past, 

 however, has given us but little encouragement, for in sections where we 

 expected to find the best results and where every chance had been given 

 the parasite and no spraying done, the percentage of Avormy apples 

 was greater than in the previous years; but I may add that the 

 codling moth has been more abundant all over the State, and the whole 

 matter is a very puzzling problem. AVe can partly account for this 

 failure. Our method of marketing our crops is somewhat different 

 from that used in the country where this parasite was found. Here 

 in California we harvest our apples, worms and all, and take them at 

 once to our packing-houses or ship them into our markets, whereas in 

 the orchards of southern Europe, we understand, the bulk of the fruit 

 is left under the trees long enough to give the worms a chance to leave 

 it and remain in the orchard. One can go through any of our orchards, 

 after the crop has been gathered, and a diligent search of half a day 

 will result in the finding of a very small number of worms. They are 

 not there. But just go to the packing-house or fruit-drier, and look 

 in the cracks of the floor, the wall, the picking-boxes, everywhere, and 

 you will find the worms snugly hidden away, patiently waiting for 

 spring to come. In other words, we are probably preventing this 

 parasite from multiplying in our orchards because we are taking its 

 food out of the orchards. In confinement we can raise them by 

 thousands, and we find that in our cages very few worms escape the 

 parasite. Here, then, is a great problem, a new phase as it were in 

 insect parasitism — a willing insect with a limited food supply under 

 natural conditions. "Who can suggest a remedy? 



California is very fortunate in having a great number of native para- 

 sites, which do much toward the reduction of her orchard pests. One 

 of the most successful parasites, and one which has caused national 

 comment, is Comys fusca, the parasite of the apricot scale (Eulecanium 

 armeniacum) . The parasite attacks several of our native scale insects 

 of the same genus, and from these it has spread to the orchards, where 

 it found a palatable food in the apricot scale. So efficient is this insect 

 that as high as 95 per cent of the scale insects are killed by its attack. 

 It is a true internal parasite; that is to say, the female thrusts her 

 egg, and only one, into the body of a scale, and the larva of it devours 

 the body tissue, leaving the body wall as a protection for the pupa. 

 When ready to emerge as an adult, it eats its way through the top of 

 the scale and leaves a small round hole in the derm. This is always a 



