October, ’24] 
armitage: citrophilus mealybug 
561 
predator it fed extensively in both the larval and adult stages; it has, so 
far as known, no enemies of its own in the form of secondaries estab¬ 
lished in California,_this cannot be said of the several very efficient 
native enemies which are heavily attacked by a number of secondaries 
and checked at the time they are approaching controlling numbers, in 
the field; and last but very important it lends itself readily to rearing in 
the laboratory. 
Following methods worked out and using equipment developed by the 
California State Department of Agriculture, five county and four asso¬ 
ciations and privately owned insectaries are at the present time pro¬ 
ducing and liberating in the citrus orchards of Southern California over 
500,000 of these beetles, monthly. 
Liberations are being made on a community basis and cost of pro¬ 
duction is being met by owners of non-infested as well as those of in¬ 
fested groves on a basis of orchard protection. Systematic liberations 
are being made which calls for the placing of a reasonable colony of these 
beetles on each infested tree in the district as early in the season as 
field conditions will permit uninterrupted development. With a short 
life cycle averaging thirty to forty days and an average increase of two 
hundred per generation, control is assured within sixty to ninety days, 
this being a sufficient length of time in which to step themselves up to 
controlling numbers. Heavy infestations, due to the abundance of 
food material available, are most easily controlled. However, with a 
surplus of these predators created in an infested district, as a whole, the 
greater part of the infestations can and are being prevented from ever 
becoming serious. This method is the one which is being followed 
successfully and almost universally in California at the present time, 
both in the interior and in the coast areas. 
Bibliography 
1. Essig, E. O. The Mealybugs of California, Calif. Mo. Bui. V. 3, No. 3, page 
110-111. 1914. 
2. Clausen, Curtis P., Mealybugs of Citrus Trees, Univ. of Calif. Bui. 258, 1915. 
3. Green, E. E. Observations on British Coccidae in 1914 with Descriptions of 
New Species. Ent. Mo. Mag., V. 51. 1915. 
4. Ferris, Gordon Floyd. The California Species of Mealybugs, Stan. Univ., 
Ser. 1918. 
5. Smith, Harry S., and Armitage, H. M. Biological Control of Mealybugs, Mo. 
Bui. Calif. State Dept, of Agri. V. 9, No. 4, 1920. 
6. Woglum, R. S., and Borden, A. B. Control of the Citrophilus Mealybug, U.S. 
D.A. Bui. 1040 Bu. of Ento. 1922. 
