Report of the State Entomologist, 65 



Escape of the Larvae. 



Most of the galls had given out their larvse when received ; a num- 

 ber had emerged en route, and were found within the box: they were 

 given ground in which they speedily buried. Others continued to 

 escape from the galls for the two following daj's. Perhaps from 

 thirty to fifty larvae were transferred to the small box of ground and 

 seen to enter therein. No note was made of their appearance, but it 

 is remembered that they were of an orange-yellow color. 



The larvtc emerge, indifferently it seems, from either the upj^er or 

 the lower side of the gall, depending, probably, on the position of the 

 leaf, as in one, nearly all have escaped from the upper side, and in 

 another, the reverse. The opening through which the larva escapes 

 is quite small ; a pale ring surrounding it on the surface of 

 the gall, looks as if the margin had been eaten away for its outer 

 enlargement. 



On the twenty-seventh of June, other specimens of the same gall 

 were received from Dr. M. G. Planck, of Schenectady, N. Y., taken 

 from wild grapevines. These were also disclosing their larvse at the 

 time when they were received. {Query, suggested by the inability to 

 rear the larvaj: does the picking off of the vine have such an effect 

 upon the sap as to cause the larvje to desert the galls at once, even 

 before they have fully matured? The af)parent eagerness with which 

 the closely related larva of the clover-seed midge, Gecidomyia legumini- 

 cola creeps from the clover head very soon after it is plucked, is 

 recalled in this connection.) 



The Only Known Remedy. 

 There is no known method by which the ovij^osition of this little 

 midge can be prevented. The attack can best be met by plucking the 

 infested tips and leaves before the larva) leave the galls, and burning 

 or otherwise destroying them. 



The Larvae Attacked by a Parasite. 

 In the month of July several chalcid parasites were found within 

 the box containing the galls, and a single example of the gall-fly — 

 all dead. Whether they were given out from the galls or from 

 ground where the larvse buried, is not known, as both were under the 

 same cover. As the time for the appearance of the gall-fly seems to 

 be in June (Osten Sacken obtained it on the 29th of June) and per- 

 haps in early July, there is no prospect of obtaining further examples 

 of the flies. It would seem as if the larvse had died from immaturity 

 or had been very generally parasitized. The chalcid obtained has 

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