126 [Assembly, 



upon their natural food so conveniently at hand, they mature and 

 assume their chrysalis stage within the shortest period known for 

 any butterfly larva — thirteen days. For the full life-history of 

 this interesting butterfly, whicl» has only been learned during the 

 present year, see " The History and Preparatory Stages of Feni- 

 seca Tarquinius {Fabr.y in the Canadian Entomologist^ for 

 August, 1886. 



The Cockscomb Elm Gall 



Glyphina ulmicola (Fitch). 



Leaves taken from two elms, in Mercer county. New Jersey, 

 were covered with the above gall. Other elms in the immediate 

 vicinity ot these were not afl:ected. Without doubt they were ot 

 difl'erent species from the infested trees, although not so stated in 

 the communication. 



These peculiar elevations upon the leaves, which have been figured 

 in several entomological reports, are tlie cockscomb elm gall. 

 As described by Dr. Fitch, they are " an excrescence or follicle like a 

 cock's comb, arising abruptly from the upper surface of the leaf, 

 usually about an inch long and a quarter of an inch high, com- 

 pressed and its sides wrinkled perpendicularly, and its summit 

 irregularly gashed and toothed, ot a paler green color than the leaf 

 and more or less red on the side exposed to the sun ; opening on 

 the under side of the leaf by a long, slit-like orifice ; inside wrinkled 

 perpendicularly into deep plaits." The gall is located between the 

 veins of the leaf, and usually parallel witii them. 



About the first of May these galls may be discovered forming on 

 the leaves as slightly elevated ridges on their upper side. Soon 

 after this, opposite to these, may be seen elongate openings to the 

 interior of these ridges, upon the spreading apart of which the 

 author of the gall may be seen within the cavity as a glossy plant- 

 louse of an olive-brown color — the progenitor ot the colony which 

 is to people it. 



During the month of June, four or five weeks after the com- 

 mencement of the gall, an examination ot its interior would show 

 the "stem-mother" to have completed her reproduction and sur- 

 rounded with an abundant offspring in different stages ot growth. 

 Distributed within the gall, among its occupants are many little 



