Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-25

'1adybirds" because OF their graceful form
and delicate coloration. During a recent
visit to China and Japan, Mr.. G. l.. Marlatt
the Department of Agriculture's entomolo-
gi5t in charge of experimental field work.
discovered that this little beetle was doing
good work toward the determination of the
various scale insects, particularly the
San Jose Sc lie. that famous enemy OF our
orchard trees In the early seventies this
scale insect was imported to California
peach trees. Its first American appearance
was in San Jose, whence II has spread
throughout the Union and into Canada.
It's imported enemy. the lady bird, Is
hard -shelled. hemispherical beetle meas
uring an eighth of an inch across ana
which. when viewed from above. looks ike
a minute turtle. Its shell is glossy black
with two red spots. Mrs. Ladybird travels
over trees infested with the scale insects
lifts the scales which these orchard enc
mics form on the bark drags out the scale
insect itself. turns about. thrusts In her
ovipositor or egg-planter, and meanwhile
slowly masticates the insect thus made to
yield its place to her egg.
Upward of POO of these good little beetles
were shipped to Washington in boxes. but
all but pair died before an opportunity
TO use them was presented Yet from this
pair 10 young were produced In the fol-
lowing warm months in cages OF Wire
screening placed over trees in the expert
mental orchard of the Department OF Agri
culture From this first brood colonies have
since been sent to various agricultural ex-
pertinent stations. In four months 1000
specimens We're lately Matched out and dis
tributed
Oriental Bugs Which Flavor Figs.
More interesting still is Mrs Blastophaga,
lately imported from Algeria. to grow de-
licious figs on American soil. Although
nearly every southerner sits beneath his
own fig tree. the American fig has never
IN1y,.,
been Impossible here to compete with the
large and delicious Smyrna fig. Cuttings
of this latter variety have been imported
to America and set out. but their fruit
have invariably dropped off before reach
ing the size of marbles Since time i'm
memorial the oriental fig grower has raised
tasteless wild figs together with the de-
hcious Smyrna variety. and at the begin
ming of each season has broken off the
wild fruit and tied 1t to the limbs bearing
the edible figs. This has been looked upon
Oy white men as mere superStitious hocus
pocus until a recent date. when it re-
manned Tor scientists of our Department of
Agriculture to solve the mystery. They
found that the varieties of Smyrna figs are
all exclusively female. and that the wild
or capri figs, on the other hand are all
exclusively male
In the fig belt Of the orient was recently
discovered strange insect, the Blasto-
phaga. which acts as matrimonial agent
or wild capri fig tree bears three crops of
fruit each year. The last crop, remaining
on the trees over winter, serve as houses
for the full-grown Blastophaga. There this
good insect remains until the first warm
breath of spring, when she energies and
bores her way into the first crop of the
next seasons fruit, fast developing on the
sa me tree.
Bug Which Marries Plants.
She lays her eggs in these young. wild
figs and soon her young emerge, covered
with pollen. If these newly Matched in
sects thus bearing the pollen of the male
capri fig are then allowed to enter the
flower receptacles of the female SMYRNA
fig, a fine crop of fruit on the latter tree
Will be the result. 1t is thus that Blasto-
phaga marries the wild insipid male to the
cultivated. delicious female. Their Off
spring combine the good points of both
parents-the strength of the father and the
duced a Smyrna fig. which. instead of drop
ping before it is as large a marble
swells into maturity and sweetness.
From Algeria We're imported large Num-
beers of BlastOphaga. snugly ensconced for
the winter in six boxes of capri fig cut-
tirSs. They were taken to Fresno Califor-
MIA: and allowed to emerge in the spring
and lay their eggs in the first crop Of
fruit upon some growing capri fig trees
The young insects beginning to hatch out
of the capri figs. the latter were STRING
upon rods fastened in the hitherto fruit
less Smyrna fig trees. Eighteen thousand
insect-'aden wild figs were thus hung in
800 Smyrna trees. The result was fifteen
tons OF good Smyrna figs thus grown on
American soil in the ore season
All Of this the good work of Mrs
Biastophaga and her youngsters She ia
a very minute creature. somewhat less than
an eighth of an inch in length. with long
and protrudng horns. Mr.. Biastophaea,
on the other hand, is wingess and mar
TALLY blind.
Bugs to Spread Bug Diseases.
All of these foreign insects are anpar-
entity happy at their tasks They are be-
ing given every comfort. are protected from
uncomfortable weather and their enemies
are being killed But some of our domestic
bugs which DR.. Howard has recently nut
to work have Jared less happily They
have been given the martyrs role TO play
That there are several pestiences which
at tines, reap wholesale harvests of insect
life Is now known to entomologists One
of these. given the unpronounceable name
of entomophthorea. Is fatal to the COM
quitoes. caterpillars. grasshoppers, small
gnats and midges Germs OF this disease
and OF others can row be grown in glass
tubes with which healthy insects NAV he
Infected. DR.. Howard and his assistants
have already made some preliminary ex-
periments along this line.
Certain grasshoppers were enlisted for
the enterprise They were dipped in the
glass tubes of diseased fluid borne into
the field and allowed to return to their
kind. In many cases the insects in the
fields died by thousands. But the success
of the process depends largely upon wealth
er conditions
As yet no experiments along this novel
line have been made with the housefiy and
the MOSQUITO. The nation will approve of
fund for the employment OF any number
or these insects to SOW seeds OF this pes
thence among their kind The sayant who
hits upon a scheme for spreading mosquito
entomopthorea or fly ditto will be assured
generous monument and a long, front
page obituary with portrait