386 



FOBTY-EiaHTH BEPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM 



injury to the germ, I have delayed reply to your letter until I seeded 

 from the pile, and have the pleasure of reporting that it is coming up 

 beautifully. 



Professor Webster's notice of this mite is the only one that I can 

 recall in our economic literature. Dr. Packard has figured it on plate 

 10 of his " Guide." It was " discovered by Newport on the body of a 

 larva of a wild bee," Anthophora retusa, in England (see Newport, 

 ^^ Trans. Lmn. Soc, 1850"). Professors Osborn and Underwood, for 

 some reason, have not included it in their " Preliminary List of the 

 Species of ^Acarina of North America," given in the Canadian Ento- 

 mologist, xviii, 1886. 



Diplosis pyrivora Riley. 



7he Pear-Midge. 



(Ord. Diptera: Fam. Ckcidomyid^.) 



The eggs of this insect are known to be deposited within the un- 

 opened blossom buds of the pear as soon as a petal shows itself between 

 the segments of the calyx (see Ninth Report, p. 149). The larvae 



produced therefrom have 

 usually been seen when 

 they have grown suffi- 

 ciently to deform and dis- 

 color the fruit, by which 

 time they nearly fill a 

 large irregular central 

 cavity therein, as repre- 

 sented in figure 3 (from 

 the Eighth Report). 

 Upon opening pears that 

 gave the first indication of an abnormal form, I have found the larvae 

 imbedded within the upper half of the fruit. 



Early Observation of the Larvae. 

 In some young pears of the Beurre Bosc variety, less than one- 

 fourth of an inch in diameter, received on May 2 2d from Theo. A. 

 Cole, of Catskill, N. Y., the larvae were seen at an earlier stage of de- 

 velopment than in any record of their observation. The pears 

 were just out of blossom and had some of the petals still attached. 

 Numerous larvae were found quite near the calyx end imbedded in the 

 broken down structure of the fruit, and not yet imparting the slightest 

 discoloration to either the interior or exterior, or perceptible distortion. 



Fig. 3. — Section of a pear containing the larvte, and an un 

 infested one for comparison of forms. 



