86 Journal New York Entomological Society. [^oL xxx. 



egg to adult stage. In order to do this successfully it was first 

 essential to observe the biology and habits of the insect very closely 

 in its various stages. These observations proved not only interesting 

 but will throw considerable light upon conflicting statements in litera- 

 ture relative to the biology of the adult. 



As has been pointed out briefly above — the adult appears in lato 

 summer or early fall, deposits its eggs and then dies. The insect 

 hibernates in the egg stage. The eggs hatch about May i6, the 

 larvae crawling to the new goldenrod shoots and developing in galls. 



Concerning the adult, Riley (1869) says that "the moths winter 

 over " and not the eggs, " and may be seen flying in the month of May 

 in which month I have myself captured a specimen. When the young 

 plants of the goldenrod are about six inches high the female moth 

 deposits an egg in the terminal bud, or at the side of the stalk just 

 below it, and the worm hatching from the egg works into the stalk and 

 causes it to swell by gnawing and thus inducing the secretions towards 

 it." 



Perhaps on the basis of Riley's observations, Patterson (1915) 

 thought that the adults of Gnorimoschema salinaris must deposit their 

 eggs normally in the spring. Speaking of the parasite Copidosoma 

 gelechi(e Patterson says " the parasites must winter over in the imago 

 state; otherwise they would not be able to parasitize the normal or 

 spring eggs of Gnorimoschema." On the other hand Patterson did 

 secure some eggs in fall from salinaris moths which were confined 

 in cages, which he was inclined to believe developed parthogeneti- 

 cally although the moths were confined with males. He further makes 

 the statement that " G. gaU(usolidaginis from the galls of S. canadensis 

 in western Ohio likewise drops several eggs soon after emerging from 

 the pupa in September." Patterson questioned the development of the 

 fall eggs of this species into larvae under normal conditions, solely 

 because of difficulties the young larvae would have in withstanding the 

 winter or in finding a new shoot of the goldenrod in spring. 



The writer has never encountered any difficulty in securing eggs 

 from adults of gallcesolidaginis in fall. Moths have been caged time 

 after time in glass cylinders with cheese cloth top with living goldenrod 

 stems, and in large outdoor cages 5x5x4 feet in size built over 

 clumps of goldenrod. In this way thousands of eggs have been secured 

 at will. 



