FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
cles which will often contain three or four 
tiers of eggs, if the female is not dis¬ 
turbed. The female inserts her beak into 
the tissue of the leaf, doubtless for feed¬ 
ing purposes, and, using that as a pivot, 
rotates slowly about, thus making the 
circles. 
Food Plants. The preferences of this 
species for different varieties of citrus are 
almost the reverse of those of A. citri. 
Grapefruit seems to be its first choice; 
oranges a close second, while tangerines 
are distinctly less relished. The author 
has found howardi on lemon trees. Other 
than citrus, Prof. W. L. Tower has re¬ 
ported them on guava in Porto Rico, 
and Dr. Back on mangoes at Tampa, but 
states the infestation to be move or less 
accidental. The writer has received from 
Wulfurt what, as far as could be told 
from the limited material, is apparently 
this same species from sea-grape (Cocco- 
lobus). A large colony on a grapefruit 
leaf will make it curl like a young leaf 
heavily infested by aphids. 
NATURAL ENEMIES 
Fungi. Both the red fungus (Ascher- 
sonia aleuro) and the brown (Aegeritia 
webberi), which are such efficient enemies 
of A. citri and A. nubifera, have been 
found on howardi, but sparsely. So 
scarce are they indeed that they amount 
to very little in the control of the insect. 
The red Aschersonia. has been found 
parasitizing this species for some time, 
but until this year the brown fungus had 
not been found on this species. However, 
in February the writer found it parasitiz¬ 
ing howardi at Sarasota. 
The most efficient check to their multi- 
8 
113 
plication is undoubtedly a small wasp-like 
parasite, Eretmocerus haldemani by name. 
This minute insect has a body which is 
less than 1 mm. (1-25 in.) in length, and 
of a clear yellow color. The compound 
eyes are dark brown and especially con¬ 
spicuous under a lens, as are three small 
simple eyes between the large compound 
ones. The four wings of the living insect 
shine with an iridescent gleam in the light. 
The female pierces the tough covering 
of the pupa of a howardi and lays an egg 
in the interior. This egg hatches out into 
a minute legless maggot-like larva which 
devours the contents of the whitefly pupa, 
grows to full size and itself pupates in 
the now empty case of the host. When 
ready to emerge it cuts a round hole in the 
dorsal surface of its host towards the an¬ 
terior end through which the adult para¬ 
site emerges. This round hole is very 
different in shape from the T-shaped rup¬ 
ture which the adult whitefly makes in 
emerging, so it is not difficult to pick out 
those pupa-cases from which the parasite 
has emerged. These parasitized pupa- 
cases usually turn jet black, which further 
helps to distinguish them. This is not 
always the case, however. 
According to Dr. L. O. Howard, who 
described the insect, the parasite has be¬ 
fore been found only in California and 
Mississippi, in both cases parasitizing 
aleurodids. It would seem, then, that the 
species is a widespread one, and is doubt¬ 
less native to Florida, where it has been 
parasitizing our native whiteflies. When 
howardi was introduced iffiquickly discov¬ 
ered it and commenced to breed on it. It 
probably occurs in Cuba as well, where it 
helps to keep howardi in check. 
It is a fortunate thing for the orange 
