THE CATALPA MIDGE. H 



seems to be lost and after this time every stage of the insect can 

 be found on any date before late autumn if search is made in the 

 right place. So far as known, all varieties of catalpa cultivated in 

 Ohio are attacked. 



IDENTITY. 



The specimens reared by Mr. Houser were submitted to Mr. 

 Coquillett, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and to Dr. K. P. 

 Felt, State Entomologist of New York, both specialists in diptera, 

 and both agreed they were near C. catalpae Comstock, but could 

 not be sure they were identical with it without comparing them 

 with the original types. Abundant material, representing all stages 

 of development, taken from both leaves and buds, was sent to Dr. 

 Felt the past summer and after studying this he provisionally refers 

 the insect to Comstock's species, but has not yet had access to the 

 types for comparison. A close scrutiny of our breeding records 

 and field observations, together with the microscopic examinations 

 made by Messrs. Felt, Coquillett and the writer, leave scarcely a 

 doubt that the different forms of injury herein described are due to 

 the same species of Cecidomyia, though* the leaf and bud maggots 

 have not been actually bred from flies hatched from pods and then 

 isolated. From a practical standpoint, the catalpa grower is most 

 interested to know that the maggots causing all three forms of 

 damage are to be dealt with in the same way. 



PAST HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 



This insect was first described by Prof. J. H. Comstock in the 

 Annual Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1880. It 

 was called the Catalpa Pod Diplosis, because the maggots were 

 observed working in the 'seed pods and the adult was referred to 

 the genus Diplosis. In 1890, Packard, in the Fifth Report of the 

 U. S. Entomological Commission, on "Forest Insects," quoted 

 Comstock's article in full, but added nothing thereto. In 1906, Mr. 

 E. C. Cotton referred to it in Bulletin No. 7, of the Division of Nurs- 

 ery and Orchard Inspection, Ohio Department of Agriculture, and 

 expressed the belief that it not only injured the seed of catalpa, but 

 that it also attacked the growing tips of the branches, causing them 

 to blacken and die back for several inches. He only inferred the 

 identity of the insect from an examination of the maggots, being 

 unable to rear the adults. In 1907, a circular, accompanied by a 

 small folder of illustrations, exhibiting different phases of injury 

 caused by the insect, was circulated among the Ohio catalpa 

 growers by the Department of Entomology of the Ohio Experiment 

 Station. A few notes were, presented by the author at the 

 twentieth meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists^ 



