20 NATUKAL CONTEOL. OF WHITE FLIES IN FLOEIDA. 



FUNGOUS DISEASES. 



THE RED FUNGUS. 



(Aschersonia aleyrodis Webber.) 



HISTORY. 



The red fungus was first discovered at Crescent City, Fla., in 

 August, 1893, in the grove of Mr. J. H. Harp, by Dr. H. J. Webber, 

 then of the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, who, in a preliminary 

 notice ^ of its entomogenous nature, referred it to the closely allied 

 species AscTiersonia taJiitensis ^lont. In 1896, under the same name, 

 he mentions it in the bulletin "The Principal Diseases of Citrus 

 Fruits in Florida." ^ Upon further study, however, he found it to 

 be a distinct species, and in 1897, in his bulletin on the "Sooty 

 Mold of the Orange and its Treatment," ^ described it as Aschersonia 

 aleyrodis, and illustrated it with 14 line drawings and 2 colored 

 figures. It is interesting to note that at the time Prof. Webber 

 first reported this species attacking white-fly larvae and pupae no 

 species of the genus Aschersonia had been known to attack insects, 

 although several entomogenous species have since been discovered. 

 In the last-mentioned bulletin the author, besides discussing at 

 length the development of the red fungus on the white fly, the 

 probable methods of spore dissemination, and methods of introduc- 

 tion into noninfested groves, states that he had found fungus only 

 at Crescent City, Citra, GainesviUe, Panasoffkee, Bartow, Manatee, 

 and Fort Myers, Fla., wliile no fungus was seen in white-fly groves 

 at Ocala, Orlando, Evinston, and Ormond. He further states that 

 the fungus was very abundant in groves at Panasofl'kee and that 

 while in 1893 no trace of it could be found in the grove at Citra, it 

 had been reported by growers as being quite abundant there in 

 certain localities at the time of the first freeze, which occurred 

 December 28, 1894. Since the publications mentioned above, the 

 yearly reports and numerous bulletins of the Florida Experiment 

 Station and the Transactions of the Florida Horticultural Society 

 have contained the principal contributions to the literature of this 

 species of fungous parasite. Special mention should be made of the 

 work of Dr. E. W. Berger and Prof. H. S. Fawcett. From a tech- 

 nical standpoint the most important contribution to our knowledge 

 of this fungus since Webber is contained in Prof. Fawcett's paper on 

 "The Fungi Parasitic upon^ZeyrocZes citri,"* in which the author gives 

 the description, history, methods of introduction, distribution, and 



• Journal of Mycology, vol. G, no. 4, p. 303, 1894. 



2 Div. of Veg. rhys. and Path., Washington, D. C.,*Bul. 8, p. 27, 1890. 



3 Div. of Veg. Phys. and Path., Washington, D. C, Bui. 13, p. 21, 1897. 



* University of the State of Florida, Special Studies, No. 1, pp. 10-17, 1907. 



