62 Forty-first He port on the State Museum. 



The Larvoe Elude Efforts to Rear them. 



Examples of the galls collected at Lake Pleasant were inclosed in 

 tin boxes, glass jars, and bottles, and occasionally sprinkled with 

 water, as the transformations of many of the Gecidomyidce are known 

 to be quite dependent upon moisture. Examinations of the contained 

 larvae at intervals during SejDtember and October showed them apjja- 

 rently unaltered in condition. Later, they were found hardened and 

 dead. 



Eiforts made by myself and by the secretary of the New York State 

 Forest Commission, Mr. A. L. Train, to obtain, from parties applied 

 to, fresh galls during the autumn, were unsuccessful, and it was not 

 until the last week in December that fresh material was procured, 

 through the kindness of Mr. S. D. Andrews, of the Lake Pleasant 

 House, at Sageville. The insects at this time had emerged. In only 

 one gall was a larva discovered, which seemed to have recently died, 

 and from which the following notes were drawn: 



The Larva Described. 

 Color, reddish-yellow; surface delicately j^itted under a high mag- 

 nifying power, like fine shagreen; eleven segments deeply incised, the 

 terminal twelfth showing indistinctly as a narrow aj^pendage to the 

 eleventh; laterally on each segment a very short black bristle visible 

 under a three-fourth-inch objective; no other process apparent, even 

 stigmatal ones. The stalk of the " breast-bone " is gradually widened 

 toward its V-shaped anterior portion, of which the space between the 

 arms is about equal to the width of one of the arms toward their 

 junction where they widen exteriorly into a U-like character. Length 

 of the larva, 1.20 mm.; breadth, 0.70 mm. 



The Larva leaves the Gall for its Pupation. 



The insect had left the gall through a longitudinal opening of more 

 than one-half its length, which subsequently closed, leaving a border 

 somewhat elevated, like lips. The opening, in the larger number of 

 instances, is on the upper surface of the leaf — in thirty-four leaves 

 out of fifty examined : in such cases, it is linear and usually in exact 

 line with the midveiu. When occurring on the under side, it is lateral 

 on the gall, and only to be seen by turning the leaf sideways. The 

 midrib of the lower surface is not continued over the gall. Uf)on cut- 

 ting into the galls they disclosed a corky structure, and the interior 

 surface of some displayed a transverse thready appearance. 



From the above observations it seems probable that the larvae of C. 

 balsamicola mature in the late autumn, when they escape from the galls, 

 and fall to the ground, either to enter the earth for pupation, or find 



