Controlling the White Fly by its Natural 
Enemies— Report of Progress, and 
Other Observations. 
By E. W. Berger, 
(Entomologist, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.) 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
The mills of the investigator grind 
slowly. Whoever makes a business of 
investigating nature (coaxing as best he 
can her secrets from her) is treading un¬ 
known ground, or ground in regard to 
which he has only suggestive evidence, 
or no evidence at all, as to what he may 
find. Then also, a great part of his work 
generally consists in developing new 
methods as he progresses, although he 
may be guided by certain general princi¬ 
ples. And then, at the best, his results 
are generally obtained point by point, 
and after long waiting. Thus it is with 
the whitefly investigations. This matter 
has been investigated before. Riley and 
Howard write : 1 “Our first acquaintance 
with the species was in June, 1878, when 
we found it occurring in profuse abun¬ 
dance on the leaves of the citrus trees in 
the orangery of this department. Some 
observations were made upon its life-his¬ 
tory during that summer, and all of its 
stages were observed. During the fol¬ 
lowing years we observed it in Florida, 
and it was studied by two of our agents, 
1. Insect Life, Volume V, No. 4, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture. 1893. 
Mr. H. G. Hubbard at Crescent City, and 
the late Jos. Voyle at Gainesville.” It 
was first referred to by its present scien¬ 
tific name (Aleyrodes citri ) by Mr. Ash- 
mead 2 in 1885. In 1893 Prof. H. A. 
Morgan 3 published a brief report of his 
observations upon this insect in Louis¬ 
iana. He states that orange growers be¬ 
lieve that it was brought into Louisiana 
on plants exhibited at the New Orleans 
Exposition in 1885. Later on Dr. H. J. 
Webber studied the pest in Florida, pub¬ 
lishing his bulletin on the Sooty Mold of 
the Orange in 1897. Next came A. L. 
Quaintance and H. A. Gossard. Finally 
Dr. A. W. Morrill and E. W. Berger are 
risking a lance, and woe unto the white 
fly when they have finished with it (we 
hope). 
WORK DONE UPON THE WHITEFLY. 
The writer’s investigations upon the 
whitefly have been continued chiefly 
with experiments for introducing the 
fungus parasites; together with some 
other observations and experiments 
2. Florida Dispatch, New Series, Volume XI, No¬ 
vember, 1885. 
■4. Special Bulletin of the Louisiana State Experiment 
Station, 1893. 
