2 26 Psyche [October-December 



NOTES ON LI VI A MACULIPENNIS (FITCH) (HOMOP- 

 TERA; CHERMID^) 



By Harry B. Weiss and Erdman West 



Highland Park, N. J. 



This jumping plant louse which is recorded by Van Duzee\ as 

 occurring in Quebec, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia and Alabama has 

 been known for some time to be associated with the elongate gall 

 on rush {J uncus sp.), the floral parts being aborted, the bracts 

 of the inflorescence increasing to many times their normal size 

 and forming closely imbricated clusters from 3 to 4 cm., in length. 

 For several years this species has been noted at Monmouth 

 Junction, N. J., and the following notes have been accumulated. 



Tlie adult overwinters and appears during the middle and last 

 of May. The oval, lemon-yellow eggs are deposited in rows on 

 the inflorescence and bracts, each egg being fastened on the plant 

 tissue by means of a short, backward projecting, basal stipe. A 

 few eggs were found as late as June 17 after the galls were fully 

 developed and these occurred on the inner surface of the lowest 

 bract. After hatching the nymphs make their way to between 

 the folded leaf-like parts, most of them feeding head downward 

 between, the sheaths. By the last week of June many are fully 

 developed and the first adults emerge several days later. Most 

 of the nymphs inhabit the outer sheaths and only a few are 

 found in the tightly rolled inner sheaths. Some galls were found 

 to contain from 25 to 100 nymphs. Those with fifty or more 

 were quite swollen. The larger nymphs have the ends of their 

 abdomens clothed loosely in waxy threads. As a rule nearly all 

 nymphal stages can be found in a gall during the last of June, 

 with the possible exceptions of newly hatched ones. Based on 

 size and structure, the nymphs were easily arranged into five 

 stages and the following descriptions indicate the development 

 which takes place from egg to adult. 



iVan Duzee, Cat. Hemip. Amer. North of Mexico. 



