

CHERMES OF MAINE CONIFERS. 293 



the females were very plentiful and were readily detected on 

 account of the little white flocculent mass surrounding her and 

 her recently laid eggs. One such egg cluster contained about 

 140 eggs and the female was not through ovipositing. 



The life cycle for abietis based upon the writer's observations 

 is briefly as follows: Galls open about mid- August and fully 

 grown pupae emerge and molt within a few hours becoming 

 the winged form which deposits a cluster of 40 to 50 yellow 

 eggs on a spruce needle. The eggs are extruded from the ab- 

 domen but the parent Chermes remains over them until dislodged 

 after her death by wind or rain. The winged form often ovi- 

 posites nea'r the gall from which it emerges. A different species 

 of host plant is never sought by this Chermes. In about two 

 weeks the young "stem mothers" hatch from these eggs and 

 seek a protecting crevice in the surface of the spruce bud where 

 they can spend the winter. These wingless forms develop in 

 the spring and become full grown about the last of May when 

 they lay a cluster of 140 or more eggs. From these eggs hatch 

 the young that inhabit the gall and are known as the "gall 

 generation" with which we started the cycle. 



For a further account of abietis the reader is referred to the 

 34-th Report of the Mass. Agric. College, 1897, and to Die Coni- 

 feren-Lause Chermes by Prof. N. Cholodkovsky, 1907. 



Remedial Measures. Spraying the trees in April with whale- 

 oil soap solution (i pound to 2 gallons of water) has been reported 

 as effectual. (34th Report Mass. Agric. College). The prac- 

 tice of removing and burning the galls will serve to control 

 this species sufficiently on ornamental trees. At Orono great 

 numbers of the winged forms are caught in spiders webs that 

 are spun irregularly over the spruce twigs. 



Bibliography. It does not seem practical to attempt a bib- 

 liography of Chermes abietis for United States. That various 

 other Chermes have been confused with this species is certain, 

 but to what extent it is often impossible, on the basis of the 

 references, to be sure. The illustration in Bulletin 56, West 

 Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station 1899 of the "Galls 

 and deformed twigs of the spruce gall louse" (Fig. XXXI, 

 page 261) does not figure galls of Chermes abietis but those of 

 some other Chermes, possibly of similis. 



In the Spruce Gall-louse Chermes abietis Linn, by Fernald 

 and Cooley (34th Report Mass. Agric. College, 1897) is pre- 



