238 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Chermes strobilobius Xa/z« The form of this species? which 
occurs on the larch has been under observation for the last three years in 
Washington park, Albany. On May 3 the larches were alive with females 
and eggs. Large masses of eggs were to be found at the base of nearly 
every fascicle of leaves on some limbs. Over 200 were counted in 
an egg mass of moderate size, while around the base of other fascicles 
two to three times this number were to be found. At this time the young 
were beginning to hatch and some had settled on the larch needles, where 
they presented a close resemblance to black grains of gunpowder. In 
the course of a few weeks, these young increase in size and excrete an 
abundant white woolly matter. They were so thick on the trees in 1897, 
that the latter part of June the larches appeared as though dusted with 
flour or starch. 
The life history of this species, as worked out by European investiga- 
tors, is most interesting, comprising, as it does, a life cycle of two years’ 
duration, and passing through five generations. Briefly, it is as follows : 
1) Wingless female lice pass the winter at the base of young pine buds, 
produce galls in the spring and in them winged 2) females develop, part 
of which migrate in August to the larches and lay eggs upon the needles. 
From these eggs emerge 3) young which hibernate in the crevices of the 
bark and the following spring attack the base of the buds and produce 
the eggs which attract attention on the larches, and from which the black 
4) young emerge, a portion eventually developing into winged females, 
and returning to the pines the latter part of May (probably later in 
this latitude, as this generation is abundant upon larches till the last ot 
June), where they lay eggs producing 5) males and females, which in 
turn are parents to the hibernating form first mentioned and thus the life 
cycle is completed. 
So far as known, this is the first record of the occurrence of this species 
in America. The following synonyms are those given by Dr Cholod- 
kovsky*: Chermes coccineus Ratz.? in part; C. /aricis Ratz., Koch in 
part; C. geniculatus Ratz., in part; C. hamadryas Koch; C. atratus 
Buckton ?; C. dariceti Altum ? 
Pemphigus tessellatus /tc/.2 This insect, the alder blight aphis, 
has been abundant the past two years on a cut leaved alder in Washing- 
ton park, Albany, and eventually injured it so much that the tree was 
removed. It occurs in masses on the under side of the twigs, sometimes 
being so numerous as to be ‘hanging in strings’ from the limbs. The 

a Added subsequently. 
4 Identified by Dr N. Cholodkovsky, of St Petersburg, Russia. 
c Bettraége zu einer Monographie der Coniferen-Lause. 1 Theil, Kapitel 5-7, 1896. p. 46. 
d@ Added subsequently. 
