8 JAMES BURTON ON A SPECIES OF ALEURODES. 



round the lower edge of the body; this is also present in A. asparagi^ 

 though hidden by the more handsome side plumes. 



The occurrence which made me wish to bring the subject 

 before you has only recently happened, and is so interesting that 

 it seems worth recording. 



During most of the summer a fuchsia remained on an inside 

 window-ledge. In September it was condemned to the garden, 

 and on carrying it out a quantity of honey- dew was noticed on 

 many of the leaves. As there is a connection between the presence 

 of honey-dew and certain fungi, and this being of interest to me, 

 I at once looked the plant over carefully. As soon as the leaves 

 were disturbed, several of these little white flies rose up, and they 

 proved to be quite numerous on the plant. Ever since at inter- 

 vals it has been possible to find a few on the leaves, and only 

 yesterday, without any thorough search, two living Aleurodes 

 were detected. 



The fly is a very small and fragile creature ; when living it is 

 almost exactly 1 mm. long. It has an orange-coloured body, 

 with well-marked head, thorax and abdomen. There are two 

 dark-pink compound eyes, which are worth notice ; they are oval 

 in outline, each with a constriction across the long axis, but 

 which does not completely divide them. There is a small simple 

 eye above each of the compound ones. The antennae are seven 

 jointed, the two basal segments larger than the others. There are 

 four membranous wings, without nervures ; apparently these, 

 like the body, legs and antennae, are thickly covered with a 

 mealy white substance, and there seems little doubt that this 

 is a waxy exudation. The legs and feet are slender, the 

 tarsus with two joints, and terminating with two rather long and 

 slender claws, and a third process. Beneath the head is a curved 

 sword-like piercing and sucking rostrum, almost the length of the 

 thorax ; the end is sharp pointed and dark in colour. With this 

 the insect pierces the leaf of the host plant and sucks the juices, 

 just as do the Aphides, the well-known green flies, and the nearly 



