S18 Fiftieth Report on the State Museum 



leaf beetle on Uhniis mo/itana, it is threatening destruction to many of 

 the trees. It also occurs at Menands and Watervliet, between Albany 

 and Troy. The infested trees can be recognized at a distance by the 

 blackened appearance of the limbs and foliage. 



Phytoptus ? PRUNi (Amerl.). 



Leaves of a Chickasaw plum, received the middle of May from a 

 correspondent in Muncy, Pa., had numerous mite galls scattered over 

 their surface, on both their sides. On the lower surface they are of 

 an elongate purse-like form, and give out from their sides some short 

 white hairs resembling mould : on the upper surface they are rounded 

 and completely covered with longer white threads. Within the galls, a 

 powerful microscope showed a minute transparent four-legged mite — 

 the architect — apparently in an early stage of growth. The mite, if we 

 may judge from the characters of the gall that it produces, is identical 

 with an European species, known as Phytoptus prnni Amerl., and which 

 has not, we believe, been previously detected in this country. 



