ON A SPECIES OF ALEURODES. 



By James Burton. 



{Head December 2Sth, 1915.) 



1 AM desirous of bringing under your notice a few facts concerning 

 an interesting little fly belonging to the genus Aleurodes. I am 

 not quite sure of the specific name, not having access to detailed 

 and descriptive lists of the species, but probably it is ^. hrassicae, 

 a not uncommon form and, as its specific name implies, found on 

 cabbages. The definition of the family given in the Cambridge 

 Natural History Ls as follows : " Minute insects with four mealy 

 wings; seven-jointed antennae; two jointed feet, terminating in 

 two claws and a third process." It is not quite a new subject to 

 the Club, as Mr. Lewis some years ago described and beautifully 

 figured a species that had been sent to him from South Africa. 

 This was a new species, and was named by Mr. Maskell — an 

 authority on the group — Aleurodes aspara/ji, as it was found on 

 a species of Asparagus, grown in Natal, Mr. Lewis's paper 

 will be found in vol. vi. 2nd series of the Journ. Q. M. C. The 

 paper was read in April 1895, and is most useful, in fact it is 

 the only description in any detail w^ith which I am acquainted. 

 Mr. Lewis has been so kind as to lend me some of his mounted 

 specimens.* The pupae of A. asparagi are especially interesting, 

 as they differ in several important respects from those which I 

 have found. These pupae have handsome plumes composed of a 

 wax-like substance secreted by the insect, arranged in rows along 

 the back and sides ; these are entirely absent in my specimens, 

 which have only a kind of frill — of the same structure, however — 



* Mounted preparations of Aleurodes hrassicae were exhibited as well 

 &9 Mr. Lewis's preparation of A. asparagi from South Africa. 



