308 Forty- FOURTH Report on the State Museum 



section of the sub-family in which the species are mostly parasitic 

 upon wood-boring beetles, and from this general fact it was thought 

 that the Abies had been infested by Tomicus or some other Scolytid, 

 and that this Chalcid was parasitic upon one of these rather than 

 on the Cecidomyid. 



Cecidomyia sp ? 



Within a Jumping Gall. 

 The following note, accompanied with a rather rude drawing, was 

 submitted to me by Professor Ballard, President of the Agassiz Asso- 

 ciation, who had received it from a correspondent in England. The 

 note and my reply, are herewith given, as published in the Popular 

 Science News, for August, 1890 : 



We have found a most curious insect on a bough of May blossom. 

 Both in form and color it is exactly like a large bud of the blossom 

 just before it opens. The skin is just turning a shade creamy, and is 

 of very fine, leathery texture. It makes frequent bounds or springs 

 from the table to the height of nearly six inches. Were it not for 

 this, one would pass it by as a May-bud. Can you enlighten us ? 



Oatlands Paek, Weybeidge, England. E. M. McD. 



Dear Mr. Ballard. — Thank you for permitting me to read the 

 letter of E. M. McDowell, which has interested me much. You ask 

 what the curious insect referred to therein, may be. It was some- 

 thing that I had never met with, nor read of, and I therefore sent the 

 description given, to Dr. C. V. Eiley, thinking that perhaps it might 

 have come under his observation while in England, during his early 

 life. He kindly returned me the following reply: 



I was much interested in the account of the deformation of the 

 May-bud, from my old boyhood tramping-ground, Oatlands, Wey- 

 bridge. I regret to be unatle to say positively what the deformation 

 is. It must, however, be some kind of gall, and the movements are 

 caused by the gall-maker; and as there is but one known to me, viz., 

 the bedeguar of the hawthorn {Cecidomyia cratcegi Winnertz), it is 

 probably that species (see Kaltenbach), but I never heard of its jump- 

 ing so. 



I have not Kaltenbach at hand to refer to for a description of the 

 gall, but in a publication on the " Gall-Making Diptera of Scotland," 

 by Professor J. W. H. Trail,* I find on page 17: " Cecidomyia cratcegi, 

 Winn., often galls the terminal buds of the upper twigs of the haw- 

 thorn {Cratcegus oxyacantha), producing a rosette of sessile deformed 

 leaves, often covered with prickly hairs. The rosette may be an inch 

 and a half across. Between the leaves lie several of the larvae." 

 *Arepriiit from the Scottish Natwalist, 1888, pp. 281-88, 309-28, 373-82. 



