August 1893. J 



PS TC HE. 



505 



Gall. — Average diameter, 15 to 25 mm ; 

 length (on twig), about 20 to 30 mm. Galls 

 luster-like, irregular in shape, sometimes, 

 rounded, cocks-comb-like in appearance, 

 springing from the small stems which shoot 

 out laterally from the twig or branch, or 

 terminal portion of latter. Consisting of 

 irreglar massed clusters of many aborted, 

 deformed, greatly thickened and fleshy leaflets 

 springing from the side stems; surrounding 

 the twig or branch but not attached thereto, 

 dark scarlet-red in color on all surfaces ex- 

 posed to the sun, the under side when not so 

 exposed being annually greenish and always 

 lighter than the upper or exposed portions. 

 Inside portions green. External surface of 

 the gall extremely irregular in outline, the 

 fleshy leaflets arranged in irregular cocks- 

 comb-like groups more or less pointed api- 

 cally, the groups of leaflets longitudinally 

 creased, appearing as though formed of many 

 little columns set side by side and soldered 

 together, much resembling groups of certain 

 columnar crystals. 



Described from 3 or 4 galls. The fleshy 

 groups of leaflets contain irregular cavities 

 within them. These, when opened the fol- 

 lowing spring, revealed only small pale 

 brownish bodies attached to the walls inside. 

 I am unable to suggest the order of insects 

 to which the maker of this gall belongs. It 

 may possibly be an acarid — perhaps a phy- 

 toptid. 



Tardy wing-expansion in Callosamia. — 

 A few days ago I found, in Kensington, 

 N. H., a small wild-cherry tree hung with 

 cocoons of Callosamia Promethea to the 

 number of seventy-five at least. On some 

 twigs six or seven hung close together, all 

 unusually large and light-colored. I cut off 

 over thirty of them, and on June 12th I 

 opened them, finding all good but one, in 

 which the pupa had failed to cast the larva- 

 skin, and so had died. One cocoon con- 

 tained a $ on the point of emerging, the 

 pupa-skin being broken in several places. 

 I took out the half-emerged moth, removed 



the ragged pupa-skin, and the moth crawled 

 to the top of my cage, and hung there, un- 

 developed, all day and all night. This 

 morning, June 13th at nine o'clock, its wings 

 were still undeveloped, and I supposed it had 

 been stunted by the unusual mode of emer- 

 gence. At ten o'clock, however, the wings 

 had expanded to nearly full size, and in half 

 an hour more the moth was a fine specimen, 

 fully developed, and unusually large! 



I have never known the wings to expand 

 so manj' hours after the moth had emerged. 



Caroline G. Soule. 

 Brookline, Mass. 



Entomological Notes. — Insect parasi- 

 tism is admirably and suggestively treated 

 in Pres. Riley's address to the Entomologi- 

 cal society of Washington, just printed in 

 its proceedings. It is worthy of the closest 

 attention as a broad outline of the subject; 

 by the introduction of fuller illustrative de- 

 tails it could easily be expanded into a vol- 

 ume and be a very welcome addition to our 

 literature. 



In the last part of the transactions of the 

 Entomological society of London, Dr. David 

 Sharp shows that ants stridulate by means of 

 fine transverse lines on the middle of the 

 dorsum of the third abdominal segment 

 where it is rubbed by the edge of the pre- 

 ceding segment; these organs are usually 

 present in the Ponerides and Myrmicides, 

 but appear to be absent from the Campono- 

 tides and Dolichoderides. 



A. D. Hopkins prints in Bull. 31 of the 

 West Virginia experiment station an inter- 

 esting Catalogue of West Virginia Scotvti- 

 dae and their enemies. 



Wytsam of Bruxelles announces a new 

 issue of Hubner's Sammlung exotischer 

 schmetterlinge and Zutrage, 664 quarto plates 

 in all, the plates copied by heliogravure 

 and colored by hand ; the original and the 

 latest nomenclature will be added. It will 

 appear in 60 equal parts and be sold for 

 500 francs, payable by part- 



