4 BULLETi:sr 1117, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICrLTUEE. 



determination were immature, and a specific determination was there- 

 fore impossible. C . spJendens Howard, a similar species, is recorded 

 as bred from mealj-biigs in California, but according to Gahan it was 

 regarded by Timberlake as a secondary parasite. No evidence was 

 obtained that the insect bred from mealybugs in Florida was a sec- 

 ondary parasite, and it is to be inferred from Smith and Armitage^ 

 that they do not so regard the California form; but as hyper- 

 l^arasitism was not suspected, no particular observations were made 

 to determine this point. Attention was first attracted to certain 

 mealybugs whose bodies were hard and brittle and dark colored, thus 

 contrasting sharply in appearance and characteristics with the bodies 

 of healthy individuals. Upon breaking the body wall of such mealy- 

 bugs one of the above-mentioned insects was discovered within. 

 Others were subsequently bred out in a normal manner ; and although 

 no record of the number was i^reserved, there were in all not over a 

 dozen, and for that reason these insects can not be looked upon as a 

 considerable factor in the natural control of the mealybug, even if 

 they should prove to be parasitic. 



THE FUNGOUS PARASITE ENTOMOPHTHORA FUMOSA, N. SP. 



In addition to the insects mentioned, which were, of course, studied 

 more or less incidentally, a fungus was discovered which is unques- 

 tionably the chief factor in the natural control of the citrus mealybug 

 in Florida. This parasite was first observed in Florida in 1920 in 

 Orlando, but it had been previously sent to the writer by T. H. Jones, 

 of Baton Rouge, La., where it was collected in 1917 on the citrus 

 mealybug on fig. Mr. Jones subsequently (1920) sent in the same 

 fungus on Phenacoccus sp. on Hibiscus from Baton Rouge. While 

 first found in Florida in Orlando, it was later discovered in various 

 regions of the State, extending from Clearwater to Fort Pierce, and 

 there is every reason to believe that it is distributed generally 

 throughout the citrus belt. 



The organism in question belongs to the family Entomophthorales, 

 most members of which are entomogenous. Both in appearance and 

 relationship it is entirely unlike the other fungi which have been 

 recorded as occurring upon citrus pests in Florida. A somewhat 

 similar form was described by the writer "^ on the sugar-cane mealy- 

 bug {Pseudococcus calceolariae Mask.) in Hawaii, and what seems to 

 be a very closely related species, Empusa lecami, has been observed on 

 Coccus viridis (Green), a coffee pest in Java, although it is impos- 

 sible from either the text or illustrations to determine definitely 



° Smith, Harry S., and Armitage, H. M. Biological control of mealybugs in California. 

 Calif. Sta. Dept. Agr., Monthly Bui., v. 9, no. 4, p. 109, 1920. 



■« Speare, A. T. Fungi parasitic upon insects Injurious to sugar cane. Hawaiian Sugar 

 Planters' Association, Exp. Sta. Bui. 12, Path, and Physiol. Ser., p. 14, 1912. Honolulu. 



