THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
29 
grower. We have thus said a little — only a little to be sure — 
concerning the use of entomology in enabling one to know some- 
thing about the insects that are destructive to crops and by which 
pests he may be surrounded. There is also another aspect to the 
question, and that is the advantage to be gained in being able to 
distinguish the difference between destructive and beneficial insects. 
Take, for example, the little Lady Bird, Leis conformis, which, w^heu 
in the larval state is so destructive to aphids. It is no uncommon 
occurrence for me to receive from growers (I allude, of course, to 
those who have but little knowledge of the subject) these useful 
little creatures, as something to be dreaded, and asking to be 
supplied with an effective remedy. Again I have seen people 
shaking their best friends in the insect line on to a cloth and des- 
troying them wholesale. Surely this must be for the want of 
knowing better as a very cursory glance over any aphis-infected 
tree will disclose the presence of numerous ugly-looking grub-like 
forms, busily devouring aphids in a most voracious and wholesale 
manner. Then there are the Hemerobidfe or lace wings, which 
when in the larval state, make great havoc amongst the aphids. In 
France we are told boys are employed to prevent the birds, chiefly 
sparrows, from destroying the useful little lady birds. 
The Si/rphidce are flies whose larvte are armed with a singular 
mandible furnished like a trideut with 3 points with which they 
transfix their prey. These grubs are most destructive to aphids of 
all kinds. A large group of' the Hymenoptera wasp-like insects are 
most merciless destroyers of many noxious ones, especially moths, 
whilst in the larval and chrysalid stages. They do not, however, 
confine their attacks to members of the moth family, as even the 
destructive Cecidomyia, or Hessian fly, has its enemies in certain 
minute species of a genus closely allied to the Ichneumons. In 
Europe no less than three species of these little flies are known to 
render valuable help in destroying valuable help in destroying the 
larval of this dread scourge of the wheat grower. The economy of 
our formidable and much despised hornets, more especially those of 
the genus Sphex. fompilios and other large kinds which we know 
by their orange-yellow bodies, mostly bands with black, and to some 
of us by their stings also, is well worth observing, as they destroy 
centipedes, grubs (when above ground), scorpions, cicadfe, &c., and 
in this murderous work they have but few^ equals. In helping us 
to fight our insect pests we have pow^erful auxiliaries in the preda- 
tory insects of many families, also in certain parasitic fungi, which 
have often been utilised with the best results. You will all recollect 
the discovery of the little Lady Bird Vcdalia, which the U.S. 
Government so promptly used for the destruction of the Cottony 
Cushion Scale, that arch enemy of the orange growers of California 
and elsewhere, and which my friend Mr Koebele and the late Frazer 
Crawford so persistently followed up to the great advantage of 
growers of the Citrus family. I have introduced the Vedalia to 
