22 



referred to. Cotton is locally attacked by a grey weevil, Lachnopiis^ 

 in St. Kitts, while Laclmopus valgus occurs in Anguilla, L. ciirvipes in 

 Tortola, ancl another species, as yet unidentified, in Antigua, St. Kitts 

 and Nevis. In St. Lucia horse beans were severely injured Dy a cater- 

 pillar believed to be the same as that which attacks the sweet potato, 

 Protoparce cingulata, and which is preyed upon by Polistes annidatus. 

 Ground-nuts were attacked by the green bug, Edessa meditabunda, in 

 St. Vincent and by leaf-eating caterpillars in Antigua and Nevis. 

 Scale-insects were present everywhere on citrus trees in Grenada, where 

 the fungus, Sphaerostilbe coccophda, proved valuable in 19f3 and 

 promised well as a control. The orange moth (Avhich has not yet 

 been identified) was prevalent in Dominica and the object of special 

 investigation. 



The root-borer of sugar-cane, which occurs sparingly in St. Lucia 

 IS probably the larva of Diaprepes abhreviatus, while that found in 

 St. Kitts is Exophthalmus esuriens. Pseudococcus calceolariae is 

 generally distributed on sugar-cane in Antigua. The Jack Spaniard 

 wasp (Polistes) continued to be a very useful enemy of the cotton 

 worm, A. argiUacea, in St. Kitts. In Nevis, the parasite of the cotton 

 worm was observed in one or two places only this year. The worm 

 did a fair amount of damage to some fields, but this was probably due 

 rather to bad management in the use of poison than to severity of 

 attack. 



Watson (J. R.). Whitefly control, i9i^.— Florida Agric. Expt. Sfa.^ 

 Gainesville, Bull. 123, September 1914, 24 pp., 5 figs. 



The drought in 1914 caused the autumn brood of whiteflies to be 

 the largest that Florida has experienced for several years. The four 

 species which may infest citrus trees in sufficient numbers to require 

 control are the common citrus whitefly, Aleurodes citri, the cloudy- 

 winged whitefly, A. nubifera, the woolly whitefly, A. liowardi, and the 

 waxy or bay whitefly, Paraleurodes perseae, the first two being the 

 more important. They do a considerable amount of damage [see 

 this Review, Ser. A, i, pp. 186-188], and a heavy infestation is apt to 

 be followed by an increase of the purple scale, especially in the case of 

 the woolly whitefly. The purple scales collect under the w^ool of the 

 whitefly, because their crawling young avoid light and the wool forms 

 a retreat where they are partially protected from their insect enemies, 

 such as the twice-stabbed lady-beetle [Chilocorns bivulnerus, Muls.], 

 and also from the spores of parasitic fungi. A flourishing colony of 

 scales is thus established. In the case of the common citrus whitefly, 

 the sooty mould affords somewhat similar conditions. Another 

 factor that doubtless contributes to this increase of scales is that a 

 badly infested tree being less vigorous and casting less shade, does 

 not furnish as good conditions of humidity for the growth of the 

 parasitic fungi as a healthy one. The female whitefly lays a hundred 

 or more eggs in the course of her life of a week or 10 days. Most of 

 these hatch during summer in ten or twelve days. The larvae crawl 

 about for a few hours until they find a suitable spot to insert their 

 proboscis, after which they remain stationary until the adult stage 

 is reached. In order to avoid too strong a light they nearly always 



