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insect a beautiful small beatle eager, as when it was a laryse, to con- 

 tinue a relentless war upon the Scale insects. 



Among the Hymenoptera we couat ©nly true friends of the orange 

 groves. Such are several species of ants, particularly the red headed 

 ant "Formica rufa," which I have seen carrying o2 in its jaws the 

 larvae of the Scale insects. But they may also cause some damage 

 when they attempt to form a nest in the cankered trunk, as they ex- 

 hale a certain quantity of formic acid which induces the wood to rot 

 more rapidly. They may also gnaw asunder the young shoots for the 

 sake of the juice which contains a certan dose of sugar. Bees are other 

 hymenopterous insects which are among the most beneficial visitors of 

 the orange grove. In their busy rambles among the orange trees, 

 they carry the pollen, the fertilizing agent of the flowers, from one 

 blossom to another. This inter hybridization of the flowers, is known 

 to give new energy to the ovary, fertilization is more perfectly con- 

 ducted, the seed is strong enough to arrive to maturity, and the crop 

 is thereby rendered more abundant. It is a notorious fact that in this 

 Island, since the honey bees are no longer seen in swarms hovering 

 over the orange groves these are not producing so large crops as they 

 formerly used to do. Early in summer, on the first hot southern 

 winds we see the young fruit, assuming a yellowish, colour, and drop- 

 ping by thousands, not being strong enough to draw from the tree 

 the nourishment required to grow, and to bear the heat of the sun. 



If we examine attentively the larger kinds of Scale insects we find 

 that many of them have a small puncture on the surface ; and if we 

 crush one of these scales with the finger, we find that it is quite dry 

 and empty. The puncture was made by a small winged insect, 

 Aphelinus fuscipennis, whose larva had nourished itself at the expense 

 of the body of the Scale insect. The proportion of L:!canium Oleaa 

 (one of the Scale insects) destroyed by the Aphelinus varies from 25 to 

 75 per cent 



Among the Neuroptera we find two species of Chrysopa, the Lace 

 fly, viz : Ohrysopa Citri and Chrysopa perla which wage a steady war 

 against the Aphidese These two insects having the appearance of 

 mosquitoes are very similar to each other. The Ohrysopa Citri is a 

 four winged insect about half an inch in length of a bright green colour. 

 Its wings are all of the same size and transparent. This insect both 

 when it is a larva and when it is an im'^go, is a deadly enemy of the 

 Aphis, a single individual destroying hundreds of Aphis in 24 hours. 

 When it appears in great numbers, its eggs may be seen at the ex- 

 tremity of small filaments attached to the margin of the leaves in trees 

 infected with the Aphis. 



Among the Lepidoptera there are some species of butterflies, whose 

 grubs destroy the orange-blossoms in the groves of Sicily and Italy. 

 Fortunately they have not made yet their appearance in this Island, 

 but we may expect to see their cocoons imported along with Sicilian 

 oranges. We have a small moth Dacruma coccidivora, which is a true 

 friend of the orange grove. It is a small white moth, measuring 

 about half an inch between the tips of its wings. Upon its forawings 

 there is a black mark like the letter S. The grub feeds upon the 

 the scale insects and spins for itself a cocoon upon which it fixes the 

 scales of the insects it has eaten. I found this moth for the first time 



