18 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
lowish; claws long, slender, evenly curved, the pulvilli as long as 
the claws. Genitalia; basal clasp segment stout, truncate; terminal 
clasp segment rather stout, slightly tapering; dorsal plate short, 
deeply and triangularly emarginate, the lobes diverging, obliquely 
truncate and sparsely setose; ventral plate long, very deeply and 
roundly emarginate, the lobes long, slender, with a few coarse 
setae at the narrowly rounded apex; style short, stout. 
Female. Length 1.5 mm. Antennae nearly as long as the body, 
rather thickly haired, fuscous yellowish, yellowish basally; 14 seg- 
ments, the third greatly produced, with a length six times its 
diameter, the fifth subsessile, cylindric, with a length two and one 
half times its diameter, slightly constricted near the basal third, 
subbasal and subapical whorls rather thick, short, strongly curved ; 
terminal segment somewhat produced, the apical fourth forming 
a broadly rounded knob. Mesonotum fuscous yellowish, the sub- 
median lines sparsely haired. Scutellum and postscutellum fus- 
cous yellowish. Abdomen a little lighter, the distal segments 
slightly fuscous. - Halteres pale yellowish. Coxae, femora and 
tibiae mostly pale straw, the anterior and midtarsi fuscous yellow- 
ish, the posterior tarsi apparently pale yellowish. Ovipositor nearly 
as long as the body, the terminal lobes with a length six times 
their width, very slender, subacute apically and with a few coarse 
setae. 
Life history. The delicate parent midges undoubtedly appear 
with the unfolding of the blossom buds or soon after, and the 
female deposits 7 to 10 or more eggs. These hatch quickly, 
the maggots develop rapidly and become full grown at about 
blossoming time. Infested blossom buds were very abundant in 
vineyards June 11, 1908, while a week or 10 days later the insects 
had practically disappeared. This indicates clearly that the period 
of larval existence is very short. The maggots or larvae either 
drop from the infested bud or fall with it and seek shelter in the 
ground, remaining in an earthen cocoon during the rest of the sea- 
son and transforming to pupae the following spring. The few 
aduits reared by us under artificial conditions appeared April 30, 
1909. It is probable that those hibernating in the field do not 
emerge till much later, namely, early in June before the grapes 
are in bloom. There appears to be no reason for believing that 
this insect can subsist upon other vines than grape, unless it be the 
allied Virginia creeper. The extent of injury is undoubtedly in- 
fluenced greatly by the time the midges appear, since if they fly in 
large numbers just as the blossom buds appear and the latter are 
therefore in a favorable condition for infestation, there is likely to 
be much more serious injury. This is probably the explanation of 
