118 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



If President Wilder declines an explanation for fear of the conse- 

 quences. I call upon all the horticulturists of America to commence 

 at once an investigation, and I will furnish them with the Jiide^ which 

 I have carefully preserved as conclusive testimony against him. 



K. L. DORR. 

 Dansville, Livingston county, N. Y., Oct. 6, 1872. 



[Rural New YorTcer. 



It is the most variable gall with which I am acquainted, as it may 

 be found of all sorts of fantastic shapes, from the single, round, cran- 

 berry-like swelling on a tendril to the large collection of irregular 

 bulbous swellings on the stem or leaf-stalk; sometimes looking not 

 unlike a bunch of currants or a bunch of grapes, but more often like 

 a collection of diminutive tomatoes, such as the Cluster Tomato, 

 grown by Mr. J. C. Ingham, of St. Joseph, Michigan.* It was first 

 briefly described, together with the fly which produces it, by Baron 

 Osten Sacken (Diptera of N. A., part i, pp. 201-2). The substance of 

 the gall is soft, juicy and translucent; the flavor pleasantly acid, and 

 the color yellowish-green, with rosy cheeks, or else entirely red. 

 Each swelling has several cells, (Fig. 45, a), in each of which is nursed 

 an orange-yellow larva, which, upon the dissolution of the gall, enters 

 the ground to transform, and emerges as a pale reddish gnat; with 

 black head and antennse and gray wings. 



This gall-maker is subject to the attacks of at least two difTerent 

 enemies — one a species of Thrips^ which invades the cell and destroys 

 its inmate, and one a true Hymenopterous parasite, belonging appar- 

 ently to the family Proctotriipidce., and which, after killing the gall- 

 maker, spins a cocoon within the cell. 



THE GRAPE-LEAF TRUMPET-GALL— Vitis viticola O. S. 



(Ord. DirxEEA, Fam. Cecidomyid.e). 



This is another, more regular, gall, made by a gall-gnat which has 

 not yet been described. It is elongate, conical, and grows more or 

 less numerously from the surface of the leaf, looking something like a 

 small trumpet. I have found it on both wild Cordifolia and Ripa- 

 ria^ and it doubtless occurs on their cultivated varieties. It is also 

 found on Labrusca and F■wZp^7^<2 (see A. E. ii, p.-28}. The usual color 

 is a bright crimson, but it sometimes inclines to green, especially when 

 young, or on the under side of the leaf; for though it is more often 



* Figured in Prairie Farmer, September -21, 1SC7. 



