August, 'U] WHITMARSH: THE GREEX SOLDIER BUG 339 



After becoming adults, they continue to feed until cold weather, 

 when they conceal themselves in some protected place, coming up 

 on warm days, but returning to their hibernating quarters with each 

 cold spell, and after real winter weather sets in. do not appear again 

 in any noticeable numbers until the warm w^eather of the following 

 year. The 11th of June was the first day of the past season on which 

 I found any specimens. The scarcity of bugs up to this time, as 

 I have previously mentioned, was undoubtedly due to the backward 

 spring, as we did not have any real warm weather until the first of June. 

 After this I had no trouble in finding the bugs. The latest date re- 

 corded for taking the adults, while collecting, is November 6; however, 

 I did find one specimen resting on the wood-work in a breeding cage 

 out of doors December 4; but I believe that most of the bugs seek 

 sheltered places soon after the middle of October, as it is very hard ta 

 find anv after that timie. 



Conical Grape Gall {Cecidomyia viticola O. S.). The characteristic gall pro-' 

 duced by this species is reddish or reddish gi-een, one-quarter to a third of an inch 

 long and occurs on the upper surface, sometimes in numbers, of the leaves of various 

 species of grape. It is not common though occasionally locally abundant. The 

 larva, though minute and difficult to discover in the gall, is an exceedingly interesting 

 form, since the appendages at the posterior extremity are evidently used as prehensile 

 organs, as was demonstrated by observation upon living specimens last summer. 

 The interior of the gaU is so smooth that there would seem to be little or no oppor- 

 tunity for the larva to use this gi-asping power while in the deformity it produces, 

 though it is possible that its ability in this direction may be extremely serviceable 

 after the maggot enters the soil, which latter is presumably the case. 



Larva. Length 1 mm., moderately stout, pale yellowish green. Head broad, 

 broadly rounded anteriorly, almost subglobosc. Antennae moderately long, stout, 

 biarticulate, the basal segment disk-like, the apical one with a length over twice 

 its diameter. Conspicuous brownish, presumably ocular spots may be observed near 

 the latero-posterior angles of the head. Skin smooth, segmentation distinct; breast- 

 bone weakly chitinized, minute, reniform, the anterior margin with tv.'O small subme- 

 dian teeth and more laterally a pair of smaller teeth; small scattering setae occur on 

 the body; posterior extremity bilobed, the ventral portion bearing .stout, submedian, 

 chitinous, upcurved processes, each with an indistinct basal tooth anteriorly: the 

 dorsal lobe broad, obliquely truncate as seen from the side and the face armed with 

 an irregular series of moderately large, conical, chitinous teeth. 



In life the hooks and this dorsal process are frequently apposed and evidently form 

 an efficient grasping organ. The description was drafted from larvse taken from the 

 galls, the tips of which were turning brown, collected at Highland, X. Y., July 22, 

 1913. There were about seventy-five galls on one leaf. 



E. P. Felt. 



