4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



cooleyi. The galls of abietis involve a comparatively small number of 

 needles causing very large cells, in one of which thirty to fifty or more 

 lice may develop, and the beginning of the gall formation is said to be 

 caused by the punctures of the stem-mother at or close to a bud. The 

 galls, it seems, seldom kill the terminal growth of the twig, and the 

 number of eggs deposited by the winged female is given as "never 

 much exceeding fifty," and the females are spoken of as though their 

 eggs are freely deposited upon leaves of the same species of spruce that 

 bears their galls. All these conditions are quite different in case of 

 Chermcs cooleyi, as may be seen by the account given below. 



Chermes abietis is also described by Buckton and Cooley as having 

 but one joint to the tarsus; but this is doubtless an error, as all the 

 species I have studied have two joints, though the first is short and 

 easily overlooked. 



I sent specimens of both the galls and the lice of Chermes cooleyi to 

 Dr. N. Cholodkowsk}^ of St. Petersburg, Russia, asking him if it were 

 possible that this Western Chermes could be abietis or sibericus, and in his 

 reply, written October 23, 1904, he said, "This is decidedly not Cherines 

 abietis, nor is it Chermes sibericus, but a new species." 



Life Habits. — The small hibernating form of this louse spends the 

 fall and winter months upon the twigs of its host-plant, with its long 

 setse thrust into the crevices in the bark between the needles. The 

 heavy winter skin is cast at Fort Collins about the middle of April, 

 and in a day or two the white secretion again shows the location of the 

 louse, which is always upon the under side of the twig. 



The first eggs are deposited at Fort Collins about April 25, before 

 the female has attained her maximum size. On May 3, 1906, three of 

 the fifteen females examined were laying eggs, and the largest niunber 

 found at one female was twelve. The white waxy threads completely 

 hide both the eggs and the female at first, and serve doubtless as a 

 protection to them (Plate I, figs. A, B. C). These white patches from 

 a single female may measure four or five millimeters across and cover 

 several hundred eggs. Counts of a few patches gave the following 

 numbers: One female, 344 unhatched, 75 hatched; another, 561 

 unhatched, hatched; two females together, 751 unhatched, 200 

 hatched, an average of 483. I have frequently counted four or five of 

 these egg-masses within two inches of the end of a twig, and I have 

 counted as many as fifteen females ovipositing on this length of stem. 

 About May 20, before the hibernating females had finished laying their 

 eggs, those that were first deposited began to hatch, and by May 25 

 the lice were hatching rapidly and locating at the bases of the tender 



