THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



105 



gall resides the lai-va of the gall-maker— a little, 

 footless, white, cylindrical grub, with a large 

 yellowish head and tawny jaws. When full- 

 grown in the spring of the fol- [jojg 70 j 

 lowing year, this larva meas- 

 ures 0.28 of an inch in length, 

 and very much resembles that 

 of the Potato Stalk-weevil, 

 wliich we figured in Volume I, 

 No. 2 (Fig. 12, a). During the 

 latter part of June it trans- 

 forms within the gall to a pupa, 

 wliich also very much resem- lll/i'l 



bles that of the Potato Stalk- 

 weevil, differing principally in 

 the wings and legs reaching 

 down to Jths the length of the 

 body instead of but 4 as in that 

 species. About two weeks af- 

 terwards it changes into the 

 Sesostris Snout-beetle {Bari- 

 ilius iSesostris, LeConte), of 

 which we present a sketch in 

 Figure 71.* This beetle is of a 

 uniform yellowish-brown color, 

 without any markings what- 

 ever; audit differs from most i^oior-Ureen . 

 Snout-beetles by being highly polished, and 

 especially by the peculiar glassy undulating ap- 

 pearance of the wing-cases. 

 We think it highly probable that tliis Grape- 



•As ri-pirils tlie ci.iTcet nomeni-lature of this lieetle, it is 



r' Bari- 

 Acad. 



■ tliat name the i 



^'; 



t!r 



better 

 ■ never described 

 ver, as is eiToiie- 



imei.f this Snout-beetle, we aclsnowl- 

 '\' our doubts whether it be properly 

 ather than to Uadarus; but since Dr 

 V the King of the Coleoptera in this 

 Duce to his authoritv in this matter. 



viue Wound-gall is caused, more by the punc- 

 tures which the female beetle makes in deposit- 

 [Fig. 71.] i"g ^^'^ egn' iind by the drop of 

 poison, which from analogy we 

 may infer that she instils from her 

 abdomen into the puncture along 

 with the egg, than by the irritat- 

 ing gnawings of the larva. For 

 frequently, in the one-year-old 

 Colors-Shiny yci- caHB, We liave uoticcd that the 

 lowish-browB. j^j.y^ j^jj^ burrowed two or three 

 inches away from its original home in the gall, 

 without its having caused a corresponding 

 swelling in the part of the cane where we met 

 with it. So far as we have observed, the 

 Grape-wound Gall does not cause the death 

 of the cane upon which it grows, iior to any 

 material extent injure the vine upon which it 

 grows. Should such an event ever happen, or 

 should these galls increase to any considerable 

 extent, so as to become formidable to the Vine- 

 grower, their further multiplication may be 

 readily checked by cutting off and buruuig the 

 infested canes at any time before the Snout- 

 beetle leaves them in the forepart of the follow- 

 ing July. 



We have noticed in September, upon the leaf- 

 stems of the common Virginia Creeper (Ampel- 

 opsis quinquefoUa), generally close to the leaf 

 itself, a simple swelling opening externally with 

 a large ragged discolored mouth. This is a 

 true gall, and it is produced by what Dr. Le 

 Conte considers as an undescribed species of the 

 very same genus of Snout-beetles (Jfadarus), to 

 which we had ourselves originally referred the 

 Sesostris Snout-beetle. This Virginia Creeper 

 Snout-beetle {Madarus atnpelopsidos, new spe- 

 cies) is met with inside the gall in September, 

 and it scarcely differs, so far as we can discover, 

 from the Sesostris Suout-beetle, except in being 

 a trifle more robust, and of a uniform shining 

 coal-black color, instead of yellowish-brown. 

 As the Virginia Creeper belongs to the same 

 botanical Family as the Grape-vine, this, with 

 us, was an additional argument for referring 

 both these gall-producing insects to the same 

 genus {Madams) , as we have done in the Mis- 

 souri Entomological Report. For it is a very 

 general rule that the same genus of gall-makers 

 inhabits the same genus of plants, or at all events 

 confines itself to such genera of plants as are 

 very closely allied together. Still, as Dr. Le 

 Conte has decided to classify the two insects 

 under two different, but closely allied genera 

 {Madarus and Baridius), we have, in deference 

 to his deservedly high authority, adopted his 

 uomenclature. 



