54 THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
We are informed also by Hon. Elwood Cooper, president of the State 
Board of Horticulture of California, that of the last importation by 
Mr. Koebele two species of Bhizobius (R. ventralis and B. debilis) have 
been found to feed od various scales in California, including the San Jose 
scale, but to what extent is not yet known. An undetermined native 
ladybird, Scymnus sp., has also been observed m California feeding 
upon the San Jose scale, and there can be no question that most of our 
common native ladybirds will acquire this habit, and also many of our 
common predaceous insects, notably the larva- of lace winged flies. 
Great confidence is being expressed by fruit growers in California as 
to the efficacy of these predaceous insects, and there is a tendency more 
and more to give up spraying operations and leave the work of the 
protection of orchards solely to these natural agencies. In explanation 
of the great benefit experienced in California from natural enemies of 
scales, Mr. Cooper (letter of December 18, 1S9I), is of the opinion that 
this results from the fact that the climate of California is sufficiently 
mild to enable many of the predatory species to multiply uninterruptedly 
the year round. The twice stabbed ladybird, he says, occurs on plants 
throughout December and January in great numbers in all stages. 
Valuable as these natural enemies undoubtedly are, however, they 
will be efficient only at intervals and there will always be considerable 
periods when, for one cause or another, they will be less numerous, 
and the scales will then have a chance to multiply. In fact, after the 
scale has once become established and the balance between it and its 
natural enemies has been readied, we may expect with more or less 
regularity i>enods of abundance and scarcity of the scale insect. The 
possible usefulness of parasitic and predaceous insects should, there- 
fore, at least in the East, not be allowed for a moment to interfere with 
active operations with remedies nor blind one to the importance of the 
San Jose scale and the extraordinary precautions which should always 
be taken to prevent its wider dissemination. We have nevertheless as 
an experiment arranged to introduce certain of the Australian lady- 
birds into affected Maryland orchards the coming spring. 1 
A FUNGOUS DISEASE. 
Some years ago Mr. Coquillett transmitted to this office from Cali- 
fornia some specimens of the San Jose scale which had died from some 
unaccountable cause, supposedly from a fungous disease. He refers to 
this disease in Bulletin 26 of this Division, page 22, as follows: "A 
few weeks ago Mr. C. H. Eichardson, of Pasadena, one of the county 
inspectors of fruit pests, showed me several pear trees in that locality 
which a year ago were very thickly infested with tbese scales, as was 
evidenced by the gnarled appearance of the branches as well as by the 
^ince this paragraph was written we learn that the New Jersey State Board of Agri- 
culture has passed a resolution calling upon the State legislature to appropriate the 
sum of $1,000 for the purpose of introducing ladybirds from California into affected 
New Jersey orchards. If the bill should pass, the attempt will he made in the spring 
of 1896. 
