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THE ORANGE ALEYRODES. 



{Ahyrodes c'ttri n. sp.) 

 Order Homoptkra: Family Alkyrodidj^. 



It lias been our intention for some time to prepare an editorial y)aper 

 on the curious little insects of this family, and we begin with what is 

 perhaps the most Important of the species in the United States. The 

 family Aleyrodidiie is not a large one. although its species are of the 

 greatest interest structurally and of frequent importance economically. 

 Up to the present time less than fifty species have been described, and 

 only four of our Korth American sj)ecies have received names. All of 

 the described forms have been placed in the genus Aleyrodes exceiJt 



Fig. 23. — Aleyrodes citri Riley and Howard: a, orange leaf badlj^ infested by full-gro-wn larvae — nat- 

 ural size; b, outline of egg ; c, young larva in the act of hatching from egg; d, newly hatched larva 

 seen from below — enlarged; e, leg of d; f, antenna of d — still more enlarged; g, advanced x^upa; h, 

 adult nearly ready to emerge and seen through pupa skin ; i, adult with wings still unfolded in the act 

 of emerging from pupa shell — enlarged; j. leg of h — still more enlarged (original). 



three species, for which Signoret erected the genus Spondyliaspis 

 (afterwards found to fall before Maskell's Inglina, erroneously supposed 

 by the latter to belong to the Coccidae), and two other species for which 

 Mr. A. C. F. Morgan has erected the genus Aleurodicus (3nt. Month. 

 Mag., vol. xxviii, pp. 29-33, 1892). One of the American species, 

 Shimer's A. asarumis, we also find to belong to Aleurodicus. 



For many years an important and interesting species of the type 

 genus has been known to infest orange trees in Florida and in more 

 northern greenhouses, and more recently the same form has appeared 

 in injurious numbers in the orange groves of Louisiana. In the Florida 

 Bispatcli, new series, vol. xi, November, 1885, this species received the 

 name of Aleyrodes citri at the hands of Mr. Ashmead. The Florida 

 Dispatch, however, is a local newspai^er of no scientific pretensions, 



