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VOL. X. LONDON, ONT., NOVEMBER, 1878. No. 11 



A NEW GALL MOTH, AND NOTES ON LARV^ OF OTHER 



GALL MOTHS. 



BY D. S. KELLICOTT, BUFFALO, N. Y. 



There have been described, thus far, three N. American moths whose 

 larvae produce galls, or more or less decided enlargements of the stems of 

 their food-plant. They are, first, Gelechia gallcesolidaginis, described by 

 Riley, with cuts, in the First Mo. Rept. at page 173 ; accompanying the 

 description is an account of six parasites. Second, Walshia anwrphilla, 

 described by Clemens in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., vol. ii., page 419 ; also an 

 account of larva habits, etc., with cuts, is given in the Second Mo. Rept. 

 at page 132. Third, Paedisca (Euryptychia) saligneana, described by 

 Clemens in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., vol. v., page 141 ; an account of it also 

 occurs in the Second Mo. Rept., page 134. 



I have found G. gallcesolidaginis common at different places in Michi- 

 gan and about Buffalo, N. Y. However, its enemies are so numerous of 

 late at Buffalo that not above one-half of the galls escape, so the insect 

 is much less common than it was a few years since. I have but few facts 

 to add to those given in the excellent monogragh of Prof. Riley cited. I 

 find that the galls are not always on dwarfed specimens of the plant, and, 

 further, the larva does not bore entirely through the stem and then make 

 the plug, but cuts away the walls and inner bark, leaving the epidermis 

 which dries and falls away after the plug is completed. These galls are 

 of frequent occurrence on plants much branched and of full altitude ; they 

 are lower on the stem than those of the fly IVypeia solidaginis, or of the 

 moth Paedisca saligneana, and are therefore less conspicuous. On the other 

 hand, they are more readily found than the large, oblong gall made near 

 the ground on the golden-rod by a fly whose name is unknown to me. 



