Article II.— Studies of the Habits and Development of Neo- 

 cerata rhodophaga Coquillett. By F. M. Webster. 



About the year 1897, in the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois, 

 certain varieties of rosesgrown under glass, notably the Meteor, 

 •were attacked by great numbers of minute cecidomyian larvae 

 which destroyed the terminal leaf and blossom buds. In the 

 greenhouses of one extensive rose-grower, the injury was so 

 severe as to render the production of the Meteor unprofitable, 

 and he stopped growing it for a time, until the pest seemed to 

 have disappeared. Strangely enough, another grower, whose 

 houses were separated from those of the first only by a narrow 

 alley, did not at that time suffer at all from the ravages of the 

 insect, but continued to grow the Meteor in his rose-houses with- 

 out difficulty until sometime after, when he, too, began to ex- 

 perience severe losses on account of its depredations. The 

 species was not definitely determined at that time, and it is im- 

 possible in the light of later investigations to say with cer- 

 tainty whether or not more than one was engaged in these at- 

 tacks. Since then, however, a number of extensive rose-grow- 

 ers about Chicago have been obliged to abandon the growing 

 of this particular variety of rose on account of its extreme 

 liability to attack from these larvae. 



In 1900, Mr. D. W. Coquillett published a paper* reporting 

 similar injuries to roses grown under glass in New Jersey in 

 1886 and 1889; New York in 1890; Washington, D. C, in 1891, 

 1894, and 1896; Boston in 1894; and Chicago, as has been stated, 

 in 1897. In this paper, Mr. Coquillett describes a new species, 

 Diplosis rosivora, and a new genus and species, Neoceratu rho- 

 dophaga, both of which were reared from larvae attacking roses 

 in this manner in Washington, D. C. The author says that 

 the larvae of the former species — those of the latter being un- 

 known to him — "are of a white color when yo ung, but become 



♦Bull. 22, N. S., Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., pp. 44-48. 



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