THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



4&A 



a section of a gall ; (</) the 

 tubercled root -inhabiting 

 form ; (Ji) the mother gall- 

 .louse at the heighth of her 

 fertility, ventral view ; (0 

 same, dorsal view — all from 

 nature ; (j and k) differently- 

 veined wings of the Oak 

 Phylloxera of Europe. All 

 these figures are greatly- 

 enlarged, and the natural 

 size is approximately shown 

 by hair-lines. 



The following discus- 

 sion of this insect's proper 

 place in our classification, 

 and of its characters, may 

 be passed over by the 

 practical reader, as it is in- 

 tended for those only who 

 take an interest in such 

 questions. I append it with 

 but very slight alteration, as 

 I wrote it for the last num- 

 ber of the second volume 

 of the American Entomol- 

 ogist : 



It will be remembered that in what was said about this insect on page 243 of our first volume 

 we criticized the founding of the Family Dactylospharidce by Dr. Shimer. In an essay read before 

 the Illinois State Horticultural Society, at Ottawa, last winter, Dr. Shimer took exception to our 

 remarks, and called upon us to give a reason for the faith that is in us. Not considering a horti- 

 cultural meeting the proper place to enter into the discussion of purely entomological questions, 

 we declined to waste the precious time of the members, but intimated that we should be glad to 

 answer the Doctor whenever a favorable occasion presented. The opportunity did not offer till 

 now, as the Transactions of the Society, containing the essay in question, have but recently been 

 published, but as we ourselves wrote the strictures, we will briefly give our reasons for so doing. 

 In order to lay the question clearly before those interested, it will be necessary to quote that por- 

 tion of our former article which so exercised friend Shimer. It runs as follows : 



The louse which forms the gall was first describe 1 as Pemphigus ri/ifoluc by Dr. Fitch, of New 

 York, though it does not belong to that genus, Dr. Shimer, of Mt. Carroll, made some interest- 

 ing observations on the habits of this insect, and made it the type of a new family {Dactylospha- 

 rida) and of a new genus (Dactylospheera.) The distinguishing features of this supposed family 

 are certain appendages attached to the legs which Dr. Shimer calls digituli, though the characters 

 of the wings point unmistakably to the genus Phylloxera of the true Plant-lice. \\ e shall not now 

 discuss the validity or propriety of this new family, as we intend to give a more complete account 

 of this louse in our future articles on Grape insects ; but we will say here that Dr. Shimer is un- 

 fortunate in grinding out new genera and new families, for he has proposed a new family and 

 ffenus (Lepidosaphes) for the common Apple-tree Bark-louse {Aspidiotus) [Mytitaspis] conchiformis, 

 Gmel.) based upon similar appendages, which he found on its legs ; whereas, if he had been better 

 posted he would have known that these appendages are characteristic of almost all Bark-lice. 



And here is Dr. Shimer's appeal : 



Here they would like to make the public belive that these appendages, digituli, are the charac- 

 ters out of which I have proposed two families ia Entomology ; whereas, the leading character 

 upon which I propose my family nactylospharida, is two claws on a one-jointed tarsus, and the 

 leading characters in Lcpidosaphida are a tarsus without a claw, and a scalc~maki?ig, not a scale- 

 like insect. The digituli froui their globe-ended extremities I consider of some importance, but 



