NOV., '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 309 



Their headquarters were at Oak Creek Canyon, twenty miles southwest 

 of Flagstaff, Arizona, and twenty miles from any railroad. All provisions 

 were carried on pack horses. The walls of the canyon were 1,500 feet 

 high, and at one time Dr. Snow came near losing his life in one of the 

 canyons. He was collecting specimens one afternoon when suddenly an 

 awful roar attracted his attention. Upon turning around Dr. Snow saw 

 a great bank of water coming down the canyon, rumbling and rolling 

 with great logs and brushwood on its crest. He scrambled up the side 

 of the canyon but the flood was so rapid that it was over his feet 

 before higher ground could be reached. 



The specimens collected required seventy-eight boxes for shipping 

 and are classified by Dr. Snow as follows : Lepidoptera, 1,400 ; Coleop- 

 tera, 3,000 ; Hymenoptera, 3,000; Diptera, 1,750; Hemiptera, 400; Neu- 

 roptera, 300, and Orthoptera, 150. In addition to these he secured 

 many excellent specimens of rattlesnakes, centipedes and scorpions. 



TRYPETA SOLIDAGINIS. I find that certain authorities state that it is 

 the fly Trypcta solidaginis which "escapes from the gall by fretting 

 against the wall which it moistens, its face temporarily swollen into a 

 spongelike mass for that purpose." My own observations, however, 

 have discovered to me the fact that it is the larva, instead of the fly, which 

 provides a passageway to the outer world. Immediately before becoming 

 a pupa, the larva, which at maturity develops a horned process similar to 

 the Cecidomyidae, by constant friction of this " breast-bone," frets a small 

 tunnel to the surface of the gall, leaving but the merest shell of the epi- 

 dermis as a protective cap or covering. The larva then retires to the 

 central chamber, leaving in its wake the "sawdust," which is the reduced 

 plant tissues from which has been absorbed all the nutritious substance. 

 This provisionary work, I find, usually occurs during the latter part of 

 February or first week in March. 



After the larva's return to the central cell, in a single night, in most 

 instances, it transforms into a pupa, not by casting its skin, but simply 

 undergoes a hardening process, and also changing from the cream-white 

 color of the orcinary larva to a golden brown deepening to shining black 

 at the small end. The fly emerges from this case in May or June, when 

 it shall find the new shoots of solidago sufficiently advanced for gall 

 development. 



I base my conclusions upon galls which I have opened sufficiently to 

 be able to observe the larva at its work without disturbing its natural 

 methods. As a further experiment, I also removed several larvae from 

 their galls and placed them on cotton wool in empty walnut shells cov- 

 ered with bits of glass, where I could better observe their method of oper- 

 ating the chitinous process, which was continued as if in natural sur- 

 roundings. They als.o developed into pupa?, from which, in due time, 

 there emerged perfect flies, although almost entirely reared under these 

 foreign conditions. ALBERTA FIKI.D, . \shtabula, Ohio. 



