ENTOMOLOGICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 9

ENTOMOLOGICAL.

REPORT TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OF MR ALBERT KOEBELE'S VISIT TO AUSTRALIA AND NEvV ZEALAND A copy of the above report; has been kindly forwarded to the wriber by Professor Sir (Jharles V. Reilly, the United States Entomologist. The report has been a lonft time in the press, the trip having been iord 3 iv the end of 1888 and the beeiouing of 1839. But now that it is published it is vory compleip, and very full of interest, both to Ih ■> entomological student, the frnit grower, and Ihe general raading public Tho work comprises 32 pages, and includes 16 illustrations, of which ninn are of beetles of tho coxicollid family, or, as they aro called, ladybirds, a class of insect; whose oxtreme usefulness cannot be sufficiently appreciated. Mr Koebeleleft California on the 25th Aufjuat 1888. and he returned on the 16th Man-h 1889 It would be impossible to follow Mr Koebele in all his movements, or to describe even a Bmall portion of his observations within the limits of ono article. Suffice it to say for tho present that Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Queensland wore both visited and revisited. The object of tho expadition was to procure natural enemies to keep loerya purcha i (the cottony scale) in check in California, where the amount of mischief it has dono to tbo orange and other trees amouutq to many millions of pounds, and as yp.t neither science nor labour has beon able to check its ndvanco to my appreciable extent. In every colony of Australia Mr Koebale found poiuo iceryae, but nut ia auy gree-f. numbers in any place, and nowhera inflicting serious injury. He was told that; the pest bad

been t'nowti there for SO yearß (Mr French, Botanical garden's, Melbourne), and all scientifio men and practical gardeners assured him that, although it frequently broke out in spota and for a time flourished, it was sure to meet with a check that prevented it from becoming a serious evil. Everywhere were found a great many of the small two-winged flies, Lestopbonus ioery& (Orawf oad), and these seem to be the chief enemy of icerya in' Australia. Mr Koabele relates that on two occasions, by going over a very large extent of ground, he succeeded in proouring 1 (on eaoh occasion) over 6000 ioeryje, and that nearly all of them Were paratised. He estimates tha return of leatophenua dies from these at about four to the scale. Besides the flies he found the larvee of a lace fly (Ohrysofa) devouring enormous number of icerya. These insects are covered with a gliitinoua fluid, and as they tear off shreada of icerya's oVasao to get at the eggs they devour, they throw them on to their bodies, to which they adhere, and form clothing to proteot them from the sun. Besides these enemies of the peat, a number of moths (Thalpocbcerea oocciphago), wlioee caterpillars devour scale inseots where prooured, aild also some beetles (Vedalia cardinalis) of the coccinella family; and a few of scymnus (an allied group) With reference to these beetles it must be observed that in two iustanoesdnly does Mr Koebele mention Vedalia by name. In the first case he mentions seeing one beetle of that name eating a female scale insect and that he showed it to Messrs Crawford and Tapper who were with him at the time, and that neither of them had ever seen such a beetle before, although Mr Tapper especially was a coleopterist. On the other occasion be mentions a single larva found on the Murray. Nowhere does he allude to large numbers of any kind of beetles, although be mentions having collected 200 of them in one colony, and infers that he collected " several hundreds " altogether, but as he collected other beetles that prey upon aphides of different kinds, and scymnus, theae would form probably a considerable portion of tha " several hundreds." I am thus particular in this matter, because these beetles have certainly oleared California of hor worst enemy — the ioerya ; and being Australian beetles Australia has got all the oredit for it, whereas New Zealand's name is never once mentioned in the Oaliforniao prasr, although it is to her that they are mainly indebted, aB will be shown in tho next paper upon this report, the New Zealand part of which which will be continued. R Allan Wight.