CITRUS FRUIT INSECTS IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES. 23 



RED SPIDERS. 



One species of red spider was seen in all the citrus sections of 

 Spain and Italy. With a few exceptions, however, the numbers 

 were not sufficient to do any great injury. Over small areas, par- 

 ticularly along the roadside where there was considerable dust on 

 the trees, many of the leaves had the characteristic light-colored 

 mitelike areas. Not infrequently, too, the lemons would be scarred 

 around the depression formed by the nipple at the calyx end, this 

 situation being the most favorable feeding place on the fruit. 



This species is identified by the Italian entomologists as TetranycJius 

 telarius. What we have been calling telarius in this country has 

 recently been made synonymous with T. himaculatus Harv. The 

 habits of himaculatus in the citrus belt of California are very different 

 from those of telarius in Spain and Italy. Bimaculatus has been 

 observed to infest severely other food plants growing in the midst 

 of citrus trees, both in California and Florida, without attacking the 

 citrus trees at all. Bimaculatus on beans, violets, and a long list of 

 other plants, feeds generally over the entire surface. Telarius in 

 Spain and Italy feeds in restricted areas precisely as does T. sex- 

 maculatus Riley on citrus trees. But red forms of telarius are com- 

 mon in Mediterranean countries, while in California all that have 

 been observed of sexmaculatus are pale colored. The writer is not, 

 however, necessarily assuming that sexmaculatus and telarius are 

 synonyms, though their feeding habits are similar. He is, however, 

 of the opinion that, judging from their difference in feeding habits, 

 our himaculatus and the European telarius are not synonymous if the 

 Mediterranean citrus species is properly identified as telarius. 



Another species which is flat and scalelike, probably a species of 

 Tenuipalpus, was occasionally met with on citrus foliage in Sicily. 



THRIPS. 



A species of thrips, said to be Heliothrijis fasciatus Perg., occasionally 

 does some injury to the orange as shown by the marred fruit. (PI. 

 IV, fig. 3.) But thrips scars on the fruit in Spain and Italy are 

 rare, so that the insect is of little economic importance. Around 

 Jaffa, however, a species of thrips sometimes does considerable 

 injury, and spraying has been necessary. 



THE CONTROL OF CITRUS FRUIT INSECTS IN MEDITERRANEAN 



COUNTRIES. 



With the exception of a little fumigation in Spain for the control 

 of Chrysomplialus dictyospermi, and limited spraying in Sicily for the 

 same insect, practically no remedial measures are employed for the 

 control of citrus fruit insects in the countries bordering on the Medi- 

 terranean. This fact might be taken to mean that the pests there are 



