4 BULLETIN 1117, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
determination were immature, and a specific determination was there- 
fore impossible. G. splendens Howard, a similar species, is recorded 
as bred from mealybugs in California, but according to Gahan it was 
regarded by Timberlake as a secondary parasite. Xo 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 5 
that they do not so regard the California form: but as hyper- 
parasitism 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 preserved, 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 6 on the sugar-cane mealy- 
bug (Pseudococcus calceolariae Mask.) in Hawaii, and what seems to 
be a very closely related species, Empma lecamdi, 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 
5 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. 
