i'.m; 



/'s )■(///■:. 



' Aujiust — Sr]>lcinlicr i^'s^. 



seen absolutely swanning on some tlesli- 

 colored fungiiscoveringasqiiash. C?icitr- 

 bita. Tlie same, or very similar insects 

 occur also in Europe, for M. Patouii- 

 lard. speaking of Caeoma eitonymi and 

 Accidiitm coiivallariac in the vicinit\ 

 of Paris, savs that their spores are fre- 

 quently devoured 1)\ a small lar\'a of an 

 orange color.' 



Tliese larvae diller in iheir fungivo- 

 rons habits from the greater number of 

 cecidomvians. which feed on tlie juices 

 of phaenogams. causing atrophw as in 

 the case of wheat attacked bv Cecidoiiivia 

 destructor^ the hessian fly, or the de- 

 velopment of galls such as most of the 

 cec/doiiividac produce. Some species. 

 notal)lv Cecidcniivia tritici. the wheat 

 fl\-. feed upon pollen, at least in the 

 earlv part of their lives, in this respect 

 approaching the species which cat 

 spores. Aside tVnm these, there aie 

 a few anomalous feeders in the genus. 

 Westwood- states, on the authority of 

 Vallot. whose work I have been unable 

 to consult, that the larvae of one species 

 are found on the under side of leaves of 

 Chelidoiiiiim, sucking the acari found 

 there : and CecidoDiyia bicolor Aleig. 

 is said by Macquart to frequent the 

 underside of the leaves of Le.otniriis. 

 ])ossiblv for a similar purpose. 



While the fungus-eating species are 

 not sufficiently restricted in their choice 

 of food to be classed as entireK' injuri- 

 ous or entirely beneficial, they would 



1 Bull. soc. bot. France, %% May iSSo, v. 27, p. 162. 

 - Intrrid. to mod. class, insects, v. 2. p. 510. 



naturallv fall among the useful sjjecics. 

 Even the golden-rods and asters are of 

 some importance to bee-keepers, and 

 the onslaughts of the insects on the 

 s])ores of the raspberry rust and other 

 ))arasites of cultivated plants must tend 

 to clieck the spread of these fungi, so 

 that in a measure they protect the flow- 

 ering plants on which thev live, as does 

 the species referred to b\- X'allot. 



luitomologists are familiar with cer- 

 tain black spots, several millimetres in 

 diaiiRtcr, in the leaves of golden rods 

 and asters. Silidago lai/ceotata and 

 .v. teiiiiifoUa are more frequently 

 marked in this manner than other spe- 

 cies. These objects are found in the 

 ealiinels of economic entomologists as 

 the galls of a gnat. Cecidomyia carboii- 

 ?fc>-<t O. S. They also occur in the 

 herbaria of mycologists as fungi, under 

 the names Rliytiswa solldagiiiis and 

 A', astcris given them a half centur\ 

 ago \i\ .Schweinitz. 



On narrow-leaved species of Soh'daoo. 

 t'.o-.. .V. hiiiceolata. the spots, visible 

 on both siu'faces of the leaf, are some- 

 limes almost circular, \arying in diam- 

 eter from I to ^. mm. : but more com- 

 monly thev arc elongated parallel to 

 the axis of tlie leat". so as to I>e ellipti- 

 cal or oblnng. TIk'n are nsualK s\ ni- 

 metrical. unless the centre is situated 

 at one side of the midrib of the narrow 

 leaf, in which case the corresponding 

 side is necessarily truucateil on reaching 

 the margin. The leaf is always slight- 

 ly swollen in the discolored spot, liut 



