XATVEAL CONTROL OF CITRUS MEALYBUG IX FLORIDA. 
whether or not the two are identical. Inasmuch, however, as no rest- 
ing spore- were observed on the Java material, and as the conidia 
-eem unlike those of the Florida form, the writer has chosen to regard 
the latter as a new species. Zimmerman. 7 in discussing the Java 
form, described very well the spherical hyphal bodies. It is interest- 
ing to note that lie observed four nuclei in these cells, and that the 
writer subsequently found the same number (PL I. 10) in the corre- 
sponding vegetative stage of the present organism. The conidia 
were described as pear-shaped, approximately IS micron- long and 9 
to 10 microns wide. A dark-colored conidial membrane is also men- 
tioned. Johnston 8 reported a mealybug Entomophthora from Porto 
Rico which he doubtfully referred to E. fresenii. He observed no 
resting spore-, however, and apparently regarded the assignment of 
this form to E. fresenii as tentative. It may be identical with the 
one herein con-idered. 
As a group the various species of Entomophthora are perhaps the 
most important natural control agents of insects known among the 
fungi. Species have been recorded on members of the following 
insect orders: Diptera. Lepidoptera. Orthoptera. Hemiptera. Coleop- 
tera. Hymenoptera. Neuroptera, Thysanoptera : they have also been 
recorded on the Araclmida. and the writer ha- observed a species 
of the Grylli type upon a large myriapod in the vicinity of Wash- 
ington. D. C. Many of the attacked insects are injurious, as. for 
example, the brown-tail moth. Euproctis chrysorrhoea L., which is 
destroyed in vast numbers, and in fact this insect is to-day in a 
virtual state of control in the United States, due largely to the work 
of Entomophthora null 
The citrus mealybug Entomophthora rank- a- high as the brown- 
tail moth fungus as a control agent. That it has passed unob- 
served—that its work ha- not been before realized — is due to a lack 
of knowledge. It has probably been present in Florida for years, 
exacting an enormous toll of mealybugs year after year, and bring- 
ing about, during many seasons, the virtual control of this insect. 
Such a lack of knowledge doubtless has caused, through misdirected 
efforts, the waste of much money among the citrus growers in 
Florida. 
While it is sometimes difficult to separate the various -pecies of 
this genus taxonomically. in the present instance, it was not par- 
ticularly so. as the fungus can not possibly be confused with any 
known species except the poorly described E. leoanii. It possesses 
resting spores unlike those of an}' known form, and its conidia are 
7 Konigsberger, J. C, and Zimmerman, A. De dierlijke vijanden der koffiecultuur op 
Java. Dee! II. Meded. 'Slands Plantentuin. no. 44, p. 16. 1901. 
-Johnston. J. B. The entomogenous fungi of Porto Rico. Board Comm. Agr. Bui. 10, 
Rio Piedras, P. R.. p. 21. 1015. 
