and southeastern Asia, as well as on several Caribbean islands, Florida, and Hawaii (Ben-

Dov et al. 2003). In 1992, CAS had become such a problem in Hong Kong that 70-100%

mortality was recorded in infested king sagos, Cycas revoluta Thunberg (Hodgson and

Martin 2001). The first detection of CAS in Florida occurred in 1996 in Miami at the

Montgomery Botanical Center. The scale was thought to have arrived on infested cycads

imported from southeastern Asia (Howard and Weissling 1999). By the end of 1997,

CAS had spread throughout Miami and as far north as Lake Okeechobee and could be

found on 20 species of cycads (Howard and Weissling 1999); however it seems to prefer

Cycas and Stangeria (Emshousen pers. comm. 2004). This led to the spread of CAS to

Hawaii in 1998 through the legal importation of infested cycads from Florida (Hodgson

and Martin 2001). At present, CAS has been reported from Pensacola east to

Jacksonville and south into the Florida Keys. Infested cycads in northern Florida were

suspected transplants from southern nurseries rather than natural progression of the scale

northward.

 The objective of this study is to collect life history data on C. nipponicus using

CAS as prey, and compare these to the results from Tanaka and Inoue (1980) and Alvarez

and Van Driesche (1998a) using euonymus scale as prey. A better understanding of these

beetles using different prey will lead to greater understanding of how they perform as

biological control agents in the field, and consequently increase success in controlling

CAS.

 Materials and Methods

 A colony of CAS was reared on king sago in a sealed greenhouse to keep out

possible predators and/or parasitoids. Small king sago specimens were infested with

CAS by placing large numbers (>100) of eggs on each plant. Once infested, plants were