September 1S93.] 



PSYCHE. 



523 



ON A FLESHY LEAF-GALL ON 

 SCRUB OAK. 



BY C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND, 

 KINGSTON, JAMAICA. 



On the leaves of Quercus undulata var. 

 tvrightii, growing near Riley's water, at the 

 western base of the Organ Mountains, there 

 were found some large thick fleshy woolly- 

 looking galls, May 14, 1892. The following 

 description is made from them. 



Gall. — Measurements of five galls are as 

 follows : Greatest width (measured trans- 

 versely on leaf), iS, 13, 15, 14, 17 mm. ; 

 greatest length (meas. longitudinally on leaf) 

 17, 17, 14, 22, 21 mm. respectively ; greatest 

 thickness, 8, 9, 11, 7, 8 mm. respectively. 

 Gall consisting of a very marked thickening 

 of the leaf, the thickened portion bulging out 

 most conspicuously on the lower side of the 

 leaf, beginning apparently usually about the 

 middle of the leaf and gradually embracing 

 nearly the whole of it, or all but a more or less 

 complete margin ; but sometimes situated at 

 one end or in the middle of a leaf. Mostly 

 whitish in color, but with more or less of a 

 reddish-brown tinge, covered with very short 

 and fine woolly pubescence, the extent of the 

 swelling indicated not only by the thickness 

 but also by this pubescence, while the mid rib 

 and side ribs of the leaf are plainly indicated 

 in exaggerated relief on lower surface by the 

 partial or entire absence of the pubescence ; 

 ribs not indicated at all on upper surface. 

 Irregular or rounded in outline, more or less 

 flattened on upper surface of leaf, strongly 

 convex and conspicuous on lower surface, the 

 edges of the swelling bounded on lower sur- 

 face by a hypertrophy of the small net-like 

 veins of the leaf. Sometimes, in a smaller 

 leaf, the lateral edges are embraced in the 

 gall, which in that case bears laterally several 

 of the marginal spines' of the leaf appearing 

 as part of the gall, the lateral margin being 

 more or less completely involved in the swell- 

 ins:. 



Described from five alcoholic galls. Color 

 noted when freshly picked. Opening the galls 

 disclosed larvae and pupae of a minute hymen- 

 opteron (probably a cynipid), enclosed in 

 small smoothly lined ellipsoidal cells, the 

 latter about £ mm. wide by ii mm. long. 

 The cells are mostly in the middle of the gall, 

 and quite closely approximated, about equally 

 distant from the upper and lower sides of the 

 gall (corresponding to the upper and lower 

 sides of the leaf), and with their long axes 

 perpendicular to the surface of the leaf. 



Dona Ana county, New Mexico. 



Arctia yarrowi in Canada. — Although 

 this fine moth has been known for twenty 

 years it appears to be still very rare in collec- 

 tions. The description was based upon a 

 single male from Arizona in collections made 

 by the Wheeler survey in 1S71, '72 and '73. 

 Mr. Stretch's description appeared in vol. 5 

 of the survey reports, chapter 9. pp. 800-802, 

 and the moth is figured on plate 40. It i^ to 

 be regretted that the altitude was not stated 

 in the text. Among my few Heterocera refer- 

 ences I find only one other mention of 

 yarrowi, in "Proceedings Davenport acad. 

 nat. sciences", vol. 1, p. 1S9, where occurs 

 the statement that a pair (<J ?) were col- 

 lected in 1873 ''high up above timberline" on 

 Washakie Needle, a mountain in north- 

 western Wyoming. 



Near Laggan, Alberta Province, Canada, 

 during the past seven summers, I have found 

 but five yarrowi, 3 Js 2?s, all of them above 

 timberline on mountains five to six miles 

 east of the British Columbia eastern bound- 

 ary, at altitudes ranging from 7500 to 8500 

 feet. My examples differ to some extent on 

 upper surface from the figure on plate 40. 

 On inner margin of primary the two nearly 

 marginal light spots near base of wing are 

 relatively larger than in the figure, and on 

 costal margin the two light spots near base 

 have not the formal squareness shown in the 

 figure but are irregularly rhomboidal. On 

 hind wing the black spot of anal angle is 



