Jan. i, 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
439 
beetles, many species of which feed entirely upon 
scale-bugs and other injurious iu3ects. We have 
already in Caylon many beetles of this family which 
do good service in their way. But all our native 
species are handicapped by the possession of numer- 
ous insect enemies of their own which prevent their 
sufficient increase. It is to foreign species therefore 
that we mint look for assistance, — species that, if 
brought to Ceylon, will find a fair field in which to 
increase and multiply without hindrance as long as 
their food is plentiful; and th\t food-supply ends 
only with the extermination of our coccid pests. To 
quote Prof. Riley, the Amaricanentomologist : — " Just 
"a* we employ cats to kill off mice and ferrets to 
"kill rats, so in economic entomology it behoves us 
"to encourage the entomological enemies of our in- 
"sect foe3." And how can our intermittent and 
expensive work with putnp3 and artificial insecticides 
compare with the co3tles3 and untiring energy of 
these little creaturei whose whole lives are spent 
in seeking out and devouring our enemy ? 
Mr. Albert Kos'oeli, the celebrated discoverer of 
the Australian beetle (Vedalia carminalis) which 
cleired the Californian fruit orchards of the dreaded 
" Fluted Scale " is now on a visit to Ceylon. He has 
Been this Orthozia at work in the Peradeniya Gar- 
dens, and has nude the acquaintance of the " Green- 
bus; " that killed oat our coffee. He asserts that 
there are Australian beetles that would assuredly 
destroy these two pests. It is hoped that a consign- 
ment of these beetles will shortly be procured, and 
that they will soon become established in Oeylon. 
In this connection an account of the successful 
introduction of the Vedalia, beetle into California 
may be of interest. The particulars have been 
gleaned partly from Reports of the Department of 
Economic Entomology iu America, and partly from 
Mr. Kcebele himself: — 
"The Story of the Fluted-Scale (Icerya pur- 
chasi) in California and its Eradication 
through the Introduction of a Pre- 
daceous Australian Beetle." 
The very destructive "Fluted-Scale" first began to 
attract notice in California about the year 1876. It 
is supposed to have been brought into the country 
some ten years previously either upon growing 
acacia . plants or upon orange fruit. By 1883 the pest 
had become so serious that fruit-growers were in 
despair, many of them being on the point of aban- 
doning the enterprise. Whole orchards are described 
as being white with the pest, the branches and twigs of 
the troes completely covered with the insects. Iu that 
year the American Government finally determined to 
send out a qualified agent to Australia — the original 
home of the ' pest — to collect and export the parasites 
of the Icerya. 
Mr. Albert Koobele was choson for this post, as 
being one of the most careful and able of the assis- 
tants in tho Department of Economic Entomology. 
And well ho justified tho choico! Arriving at Sydney 
in Oct. 1888, Mr. Kcebele immediately set about his 
task. He was especially commissioned to prooare 
specimens of a fly that was known to attack tho 
Icerya. In searching for and procuring these ha 
found that a small beetle (the now famous Vedalia 
carminalis) was greedily feeding upon the scale-insect, 
Mr. Kcebele at once saw the value of this beetle, 
He found it doing its beneficial work in various parts 
of South Australia and New Zealand. He collected 
a large number of specimens, and was able to forward 
them in good condition to California by placing them 
on ice and so keeping them dormant. And he finally 
returned to America with some 6,000 of the insects 
in various stages. These were speedily colonized in 
different parts of California, and, finding a plentiful 
supply of their food, increased so rapidly that within 
the short space of a twelve-month they had practically 
cleared the fruit orchards of a pest that had for 
many years reigned supreme. To quote from an 
Amerioan Report on the subject : a correspondent 
writes that "The Vedalia has multiplied in number 
" and spread so rapidly that everyone of my thirty- 
" two hundred orohai'd trees is literally swarming with 
" them. All my ornamental trees, shrubs and vines 
" which were infested with white-scale, are practically 
" cleansed by this wonderful parasite." 
The pecuniary saving is incalculable ! Not to men- 
tion the value of the fruit crops repeatedly destroyed, 
instead of the costly processes of fumigation and spray- 
ing and washing with insecticides which it had been 
necessary to continue year after year, here was an 
insignificant little beetle taking upon itself the entire 
burden of the work and most successfully accomplish- 
ing its task. 
Subsequently Mr. Kcebele found another "Lady- 
bird" (named, after its discoverer, Novius Koubeli) that 
has proved equally valuable in destroying the Icerya 
An examination of the indices of the yearly volume3 
of American Reports is instructive. In that for 18S3 
there is half a column of references to this pest. 
In subsequent volumes they decrease year by year 
till in 1893 there is not a single reference to the 
Icerya. 
The success of this undertaking was so complete 
th\t on the general demtnd of the fruit growers, 
Mr. Kcebele was sent, in August 1891, on a second 
trip to Australia to search for natural enemies and 
parasites of other Coccid pests then prevalent in 
California. He was again successful in finding and 
exporting two other beetles ( Rhizobi us toowomljte and 
It. debilisj which feed freely upon scale-bugs of all 
kinds. The following extracts from recent San 
Francisco papers will best show the position of affairs 
before and after this second importation. In one of 
these papers, date! Sept. 29th, 1894; is an account of 
" The Value Rhizobius." It is there stated that 
" Mr. Alexander Craw, State Horticultural Quarantine 
" Officer, is distributing some 9,00J of the lady-bird 
" beetle, and directions were given to colonize them 
" at Cucamouga and Ontario. The value of these 
" beetles is learnedly set forth by Prof. A. J. Cook, 
" entomologist at Pomona College, who has givon the 
" subject much study. Tho following extracts are 
" taken from his observations : — 
•' ' While attending the Farmer's Institute at Senta 
" ' Barbara, I loarned that six miles north there were 
" ' citrus orchids that had been entirely freed of tho 
