INSECTS AFFECTING CITRUS FRUITS 457 



fruit. The insect is destructive to citrus trees in Florida and 

 the other Gulf states, but does not occur in California. It is 

 very often found as a pest in greenhouses in many sections of 

 the United States. When the scales occur on parts of the 

 tree that can readily be reached with sprays they may be com- 

 paratively easily controlled by spraying with kerosene emul- 

 sion; otherwise, fumigation should be resorted to. 



The Mealy-bug (Pseudococcus citri). This insect is one of 

 those kinds of Coccidce that are unprotected by any scaly 

 covering. The body is covered with 

 a mealy or flocculent waxy secretion 

 which, on the sides, takes the form 

 of short waxy filaments. The two 

 posterior filaments are two or three 

 times as long as those on the sides. 

 The insects are active during all the 

 stages of their development until the 

 female begins to secrete the loose, 

 fluffy, cottony mass that serves to 

 protect the eggs. The females may 

 begin laying eggs when they are only 

 five or six weeks old, and as each fe- 

 male will lay from three to four hun- 

 dred eggs the number of individuals 



in a colony increases very rapidly. FlG - 217. Mealy-bug, 

 r i r it. Pseudococcus citri. (Greatly 



They may attack any part of the enlarged; after Quayle, 



tree, but are usualy found in pro- photo by Doane.) 

 tected places, such as the base of 



the leaves, in the navel of the orange, or in places where the 

 leaves or the fruit touch each other or some other object. These 

 insects secrete considerable honey-dew, which is so very sticky 

 that it takes much washing and brushing to remove it and the 

 smutty fungus that grows on it from the fruit. Aside from 

 the cost of the labor required to clean the fruit, this washing 

 is undesirable because it affects the keeping qualities of the 

 oranges and lemons. 



On account of their habit of hiding away in protected places, 

 and because the cottony secretion that covers them is so hard 



