68 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
may be seen sticking to the leaves, and even to the sides of 
buildings and fences in the fall. 
Now is the time when we are most troubled with the 
orange aphis. This little insect varies in color from light 
green to black. They live on the juices of the young leaves, 
but do not occur in sufficient numbers to do any great 
damage. 
One of the worst enemies of the orange is the “orange 
dog,” an ugly, disgusting, hairless caterpillar, which, when 
touched, protrudes two red horns and emits a terrible odor. 
They feed on the young leaves, and it is wonderful the 
amount of foliage one of them will consume. They do great 
injury to young trees. The butterfly of this ugly larva is 
very beautiful, the wings above are crossed with yellow 
spots, while below they are yellow with black veins. On the 
tail-like projection of each hind wing is an eye-like spot of 
yellow, while near the inner angle of the same wing is another 
spot of red and blue. The female deposits her eggs on the 
most tender leaves of the tree- these hatch in a few days. 
The larval condition is passed in from ten to fifteen days,, 
when the pupa state is entered, where it remains during the 
summer months. Six or seven broods may be hatched in one 
season, so it is well f <r the orange grower to look to his 
young trees. 
THE RUST-MITE. 
This minute insect, which is invisible to the naked eye, is a 
great source of annoyance to the orange grower, and causes a 
loss of thousands of dollars each year to the growers. The 
rust-mite is only 1,200th part of an inch long. The eggs are 
deposited singly or in clusters over the leaves and hatch in 
four or five days. In about ten days they shed their skins, 
and reach the adult condition, which differs from the young 
in being a little darker. It is during the hot, moist weather 
in summer when they become most abundant; cool or dry 
weather checks them. On examination of a single leaf in¬ 
fested with them Mr. Hubbard estimates the number of mites 
and eggs at 75,000. These little creatures are able to travel 
about twelve feet per hour, so they are able to cover a good 
deal of space in a short time. The result of the little fellows’ 
work is not altogether bad, for our rusty fruit will carry a 
good deal better than the bright, and late in the season there 
is not much difference in price. The russet fruit holds its 
juices better than the bright. Almost any of the insecticides 
now in use will destroy the rust-mite, but the trees must have 
several applications for they work the year round, as their 
food is the oil in the rind of the orange and other citrus. 
In some portions of the state the white fly is causing a 
