REPORT OF A TRIP TO INDIA AND THE ORIENT IN 
SEARCH OF THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF 
THE CITRUS WHITE FLY. 
INTRODUCTION. 
This bulletin has been prepared with the idea of presenting some 
of the more important phases, from a scientific standpoint, of a 
journey made in search of parasitic and predatory enemies of the 
citrus white fly {Aleyrodes citri R. and H.). The major portion of 
the bulletin is devoted to a treatment of material bearing directly 
on the citrus white fly, its enemies in Asiatic countries, and the 
efforts toward their collection and introduction into the United States. 
Supplementary to this is appended a consideration of other topics 
with which the writer became familiarized during the expedition and 
which have a more or less direct bearing on the culture of citrus fruits. 
The information herein relative to life history, distribution, and 
injury of the white fly in this country has been taken largely from 
the results of the work of Drs. Morrill and Back in their investiga- 
tions of the citrus white fly in Florida. 1 
THE CITRUS WHITE FLY. 
General. 
The citrus white fly belongs to a group of insects popularly 
known as the mealy-wings (Aleyrodidae) and is closely related 
to the scale insects (Coccidse), numerous species of which are very 
injurious to citrus fruit trees in all parts of the world. In fact, 
entomologists of the earlier days classified the Aleyrodidae as a division 
of the Coccidse. Subsequent investigators, however, have found 
certain characteristics normal to the group sufficiently distinct to 
call for its separation into a family of its own. 
The first record of the white fly as a serious pest to citrus fruit 
trees was from the State of Florida, and from the date of that record 
to the present time its injury has continued as a menace to the most 
profitable commercial citrus-fruit production. In 1885 the insect 
was given the scientific name of Aleyrodes citri by Mr. Wm. H. 
Ashmead 2 in a local Florida paper and subsequently was fully de- 
scribed by Riley and Howard, of the Division of Entomology, in 
Insect Life. 3 
1 Bui. 92, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1911. 
2 Florida Dispatch, n. ser., vol. 11, November, 1885. 
8 Ins. Life, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 219-226, 1893. 
