REPORT OF A TRIP TO INDIA AND THE ORIENT IN 



SEARCH OF THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF 



THE CITRUS WHITE FLY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Tliis bulletin has been prepared with the idea of presenting some 

 of the more important phases, from a scientific standpoint, of a 

 journey made in search of parasitic and predatory enemies of the 

 citrus white fly (Aleyrodes citri R. and H.). The major portion of 

 the bulletin is devoted to a treatment of material bearing directly 

 on the citrus white fl}'^, its enemies in Asiatic countries, and the 

 efforts toward their collection and introduction into the United States. 

 Supplementary to this is appended a consideration of other topics 

 with which the writer became familiarized during the expedition and 

 which have a more or less direct bearing on the culture of citrus fruits. 



The information herein relative to life history, distribution, and 

 injury of the white fly in this country has been taken largely from 

 the results of the work of Drs. Morrill and Back in their investiga- 

 tions of the citrus white fly in Florida.* 



THE CITRUS WHITE PLY. 



General. 



The citrus white fly belongs to a group of insects popularly 

 known as the mealy-wings (Aleyrodidse) and is closely related 

 to the scale insects (Coccidse), numerous species of which are very 

 injurious to citrus fruit trees in all parts of the world. In fact, 

 entomologists of the earlier days classified the Aleyrodidse as a division 

 of the Coccidse. Subsequent investigators, however, have found 

 certain characteristics normal to the gi-oup sufficiently distinct to 

 call for its separation into a family of its own. 



The first record of the white fly as a serious pest to citrus fruit 

 trees was from the State of Florida, and from the date of that record 

 to the present time its injury has continued as a menace to the most 

 profitable commercial citrus-fruit production. In 1885 the insect 

 was given the scientific name of Aleyrodes citri by Mr. Wm. H. 

 Ashmead ^ in a local Florida paper and subsequently was fully de- 

 scribed by Riley and Howard, of the Division of Entomology, in 

 Insect Life.^ 



> Bui. 92, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1911. 



' Florida Dispatch, n. ser., vol. 11, November, 18S5. 



« Ins. Life, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 219-226, 1S93. 



