Oct., '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 351 



Six females and seventeen males (six slides) and five females 

 and six males (six pins) from the same series have been marked 

 Paratypes and are in the collection of the Massachusetts Ag- 

 ricultural College, as are also slides of the early stages. 



This insect may ultimately prove to belong to another genus, 

 but I follow Dr. Felt (in litt.) in referring it tentatively to 

 Cecidomyia. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



Adult. The adult insect emerges from the ground from May i to 

 20, and all have disappeared by June I. In the spring of 1908, the 

 author caught five adults May 4, and by May n the insects were found 

 under the tree in thousands, being so numerous that it was only neces- 

 sary to sweep an open cyanide jar over the top of and through the grass 

 to obtain all the specimens desired. The adults appear just as the leaves 

 begin to unfold. For a time, after emerging, large numbers will be 

 found in the early morning and on wet days especially, under the tree, 

 but as it gets warmer and the dew dries off, they rise among the 

 branches. They have a feeble flight, however, and do not fly out beyond 

 the borders of the tree. When the leaves are one to two inches long, the 

 females fly to the leaves and begin to lay their eggs, for the most part 

 on the under side. 



Eggs. The eggs are laid without any regular order, attached to the 

 leaf by the posterior pole and placed diagonally to the plane of the 

 leaf surface. The egg is minute, appearing to the eye like a reddish 

 protuberance. Under the microscope it is seen to be almost perfectly 

 oval, .27 mm. long and .09 mm. wide. The surface is smooth and the 

 egg shell transparent, the reddish color more intense at one end, being 

 due to the larva inside. Most of the eggs are scattered irregularly 

 between the veins on the lower surface, but a few are generally laid, ap- 

 parently by chance, on the upper side. From fifty leaves, an average 

 of seventy eggs was obtained for each, with not over six on the upper 

 side, but the total number varied from forty to one hundred and 

 twenty. On one leaf, an inch and three-quarters of in inch wide, 

 there were two hundred and eighty-one eggs on the lower saiface and 

 one hundred and seventy-five on the upper. This, however, is an 

 exceptional case. 



Larva. The larva hatches in from four to six days, the time varying 

 with the weather. The body is pale orange, the head a shade darker. 

 Length .27 mm.; width .TO mm. They go at once to the edge of the 

 leaf, or to any hole in it, and begin to feed on the upper surface. 

 After about four days of this feeding, the edge beings to curl over 

 on to the upper surface, forming a roll, the upper side of which becomes 



