5IO SEVENTH REPORT (.)F THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



reddish brown, with tlio surface marked witli numerous deHcate carin.ne, which meet at 

 the end. The larva is a small, cylindrical, yellowish-brown creature, about \-i of an 

 inch in length, and the moth is a very small, brownish, irregularly gray banded 

 insect with a wing spread of about y% of an inch, plate 12, figure 23. 



This minute insect, although it lives within such a snug retreat, is subject to 

 attack by several minute parasitic forms. 



PITCH-PINE NEEDLE GALL FLY. 



Diplosis pini-rigidce Pack. 



The work of this interesting little gall fly may be recognized by the shortened, 

 deformed needles (plate 12, figure 4) on pitch pine, which may be observed at vari- 

 ous times during the summer. An examination at the right season will reveal thick, 

 orange colored larvae in the basal enlargements. 



This insect was met with at Karner during several years, though it was at no time 

 excessively abundant. The attack was in most cases confined to one or two tips 

 on the tree and a considerable proportion of the needles would be affected, indicat- 

 ing that the female probably remains on one branch and deposits a large proportion 

 of the eggs at the base of adjacent needles. The work of this species was observed 

 by its describer, Dr. Packard, at Brunswick, Maine, in 1862 or 1863. He found the 

 larva in September of that year and states that when it is fully developed, it 

 forsakes the gall, ascends to the terminal buds and pupates on one side of 

 them exposed to the air. He adds that there are sometimes two larv?e, one on each 

 side of the leaf. The cocoons are described by him as pale, oval and covered with 

 pitch which exudes from the buds of the tree. They were found May 20th. At 

 maturity, the pupa wriggles partly out of the cocoon and through the adhering 

 pitch, and the fly emerges from the projecting case. 



Life Histo7-y. The life history of the species has been summarized by Dr. Pack- 

 ard as follows: The eggs are probably laid at the base of the needles early in May 

 and possibly the preceding autumn or the larva may winter in this gall, though this 

 does not appear probable. They pupate within silken cocoons about the middle or 

 the third week of May and the fly probably appears about the early part or the 

 middle of June and deposits eggs which give rise to the brood that wc have found 

 in September. Dr. Packard finds that a large percentage of the insectr, arc 

 (destroyed by a chalcid parasite. Very small larva; were met with by us July 27, 

 19OI, in affected needles. On the 20th of the following June a few deformed 

 needles were found among the old foliage and young larva; were to be seen and 



