PREVIOUS WORK WITH INSECT PARASITES. 
25 
also occurred, but was abundant and injurious. He therefore argued 
that the insect was probably introduced from Australia into New Zea- 
land, and that its abundance in the latter country and its relative 
scarcity in Australia were due to the fact that in its native home it 
was held in subjection by some parasite or natural enemy, and that in 
the introduction into New Zealand the scale insect had been brought 
in alone. The same, thing, he argued, had occurred in the case of the 
introduction into the United States. He therefore, in his annual 
report for 1886, recommended that an effort be made to study the 
natural enemies of the scale in Australia and to introduce them into 
California ; and the same year the leading fruit growers of California 
in convention assembled petitioned Congress to make appropriations 
for the Department of Agriculture to undertake this work. In Feb- 
ruary, 1SS7, the Department 
of Agriculture received speci- 
mens of an Australian para- 
site of Ice rv a from the late 
Frazier S. Crawford, of Ade- 
laide, South Australia. It 
was a dipterous insect known 
as Lestophonus ieeryx Will., 
and for some t hue it was con- 
sidered} both by Prof. Riley 
and his correspondents and 
agents, that the importation 
of this particular parasite 
offered the best chances for 
good results. 
Neither the recommenda- 
tions of Prof. Iviley nor of 
the then commissioner of 
agriculture. Hon. Norman J. 
Colman, nor the petitions of the California horticulturists gained 
the needed congressional appropriations, and, since there appeared 
at that time annually in the bills appropriating to the entomo- 
logical service of the Department of Agriculture a clause prevent- 
ing travel in foreign parts, it became necessary to gain the funds 
for the expense of the trip to Australia from some other source. 
A movement was started in California to raise these funds by 
private subscription, but it was never carried through. In an 
address given by Prof. Riley before the California State Board of 
Horticulture at Riverside, CaL, in 1S87, he repeated his recommenda- 
tions. During the summer of 1887 he was absent in Europe, and the 
senior author, who was at that time the first assistant entomologist 
of the department, by correspondence secured from Mr. Crawford 
numerous specimens of Icerya infested by the Lestophonus above 
I k;. 4.— The Au>traliin ladybird ( Xoiius cardinalis), an 
ini|)(»rit'<l enemy of (he fluted scale: a, Ladybird larv;e 
feeding on adult female and egg sac; 6, pupa; r , adult 
ladybird; d, oringe twig, showing scales and lady- 
birds, a-c, Enlarged; <J, natural size. (From Mar- 
latt.) 
