Plan t Sanitation. 106 [Feb. 190?. 



travelling and collecting beneficial insects to be introduced into Hawaii. He has 

 since continued his work under that Government and has imported many insects, 

 some of which are said to have accomplished good results. For example, a ladybird 

 known as Coccinetta repanda was brought by him from Australia and China and is 

 said to have exterminated plant-lice on sugar cane and other crops. Another lady- 

 bird, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri is said to have destroyed the scale insects on 

 coffee plants and other trees ; while a Chalcidid parasite known as Chalcis 

 obscurata introduced from China and Japan, is reported to have multiplied enor- 

 mously at the expense of an injurious caterpillar which had attacked banana and 

 palm trees. 



The San Jose scale, while attacked by various internal parasites proved in 

 the Eastern United States to thrive in spite of their presence, and in 1901 and 1902 

 Mr. C. L. Marlatt, Assistant Chief of the Division of Entomology of the Department 

 of Agriculture, made a trip of exploration in oriental countries, lasting more than a 

 year. He found the original home of the San Jose scale to be North of China, where 

 its original host plant is a little haw apple which grows wild over the hills. He 

 found there everywhere a ladybird known as Chitocorus similis, feeding in all 

 stages upon the San Jose scale. Specimens of these were shipped to Washington 

 and bred freely, afterwards being sent in colonies to various parts of the United 

 States. The colonies at Washington were practically exterminated the second 

 year by an American parasite of ladybird beetles, and among the Colonies sent out 

 those in the North did not succeed in establishing themselves. In the South, how- 

 ever, the species increased and is still maintaining itself although the universal use 

 of the lime, sulphur, and salt washes has prevented it from becoming an important 

 feature in the insect fauna of that region. 



After Mr. Koebele left California to go to Hawaii, Mr. George Compere was 

 sent by the State Board of Horticulture of California to make investigations and 

 to send to California such beneficial insects as he deemed of probable value. Later 

 he entered the employment of the Government of Western Australia, and has since 

 been travelling in various parts of the world, partly in the interest of Western 

 Australia and partly in the interest of the State of California. Several species have 

 been discovered by him and sent to California, all of them being desirable additions 

 to the California fauna, although the last reports from the Commissioner of Horti- 

 culture do not indicate that any of them have as yet done work of any great value. 

 Mr. Compere's latest importation into California is a European Ichneumon fly 

 known as Callie phial tes messor, a species which occnrs commonly throughout 

 Europe and which has been recorded as an European enemy of the wax moth 

 (Galleria mellonella). This parasite was found in Spain feeding upon the codling 

 moth larvae, and he imported specimens into California. It is said to have already 

 established itself there and to promise good results. Mr. Compere has also imported 

 several beneficial insects into Western Australia, the one which he thinks will 

 accomplish the best results being a parasite of the so-called fruit fly (Geratitis 

 capitata) which he found in Brazil, 



The speaker described his visit of the previous summer to Europe to origi- 

 nate an extensive effort to import the European parasites of the gypsy moth and 

 the brown-tail moth into Massachusetts and to acclimatize them in that State. 

 He showed that both of these insects are well known in Europe and are by no 

 means as injurious on that continent as they prove to be in Massachusetts. They 

 are known to have many natural enemies and parasites in Europe. Fifty-two 

 species of parasites have been recorded for the gypsy moth by European ento- 

 mologists, and nearly the same number for the brown-tail moth. The speaker 

 visited Europe during June and July, 1905 and secured the sending from Italy, 



