1907.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



CHERMES OF COLORADO CONIFERS. 

 BY C. P. GILLETTE. 



Genus Chcrmcs comprises a small number of species that have not 

 received the attention which is their due in this country. As an 

 economic group the}" are of little importance so far as their injuries 

 to forest trees are concerned, but some of the species become decidedly- 

 injurious to pines and spruces when used as shade trees in parks or 

 private grounds. 



The apterous females belonging to the genus are characterized by 

 having broad oval bodies, very short three-jointed antennae, short 

 stout legs, short stout beaks with very long setse, and a large number 

 of glandular patches upon head, thorax and abdomen for the secretion 

 of long waxen threads for protection. The winged females have 

 short stout five-jointed antennae, very broad heads, suckers at the 

 distal ends of the tibiae and strong anterior wings with two unbranched 

 discoidal veins. Cornicles in both forms wanting. 



The males, at least in the United States, are unknown. Reproduc- 

 tion is always by means of eggs which are attached in clusters to 

 leaves or bark by means of silken threads. 



Chermes cooleyi n. sp. (Plates I, II, III, IV.) 



Cher>}ics abietis L., Cooley, 34th Report Massachusetts Agricultural College, 



1S97; Author's separata, p. 4. 

 Chermes abietes L., Fletcher, Report of Entomologist and Botanist, Canada 



Central Experimental Farm, p. 190. 

 Chermes abietis L., Fletcher, ibid., 1903, p. 167. 

 Chermes sibericus Chldky., Fletcher, ibid., 1903, p. 167. 



Wliile I cannot be certain that the records by Dr. Fletcher given 

 above refer to Chermes cooleyi, it is strongly probable that such is the 

 case, as I have examined immature but fully formed galls that were 

 kindly sent me from the Northwest by Dr. Fletcher, and also by Dr. 

 Hopkins of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, and they were in both 

 instances large strong galls, exactly like the typical galls of Chermes 

 cooleyi. 



My studies of this species have been wholly in the West, and I have 

 not seen either winged or wingless examples of the closely allied species 

 abietis and sibericus. Dr. C. H. Fernald kindly sent me galls of abictis,^ 

 however, from Massachusetts which seem quite unlike the galls of 



