230 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



edy should be applied earl}' in spring, before the 

 plant-lice have become too numerous. 



Phylloxera Work.— Wood-lice on Grape- 

 vine Roots. — I licrewith send you a small box, 

 containing some insects, which we suppose to be 

 Phylloxera. This spring we found that the vines 

 in one of our hot-houses, containing grape-vines 

 two years old, made an effort to start finely, but 

 dwindled away. There was no apparent cause 

 for it, but, on examining the roots, we found 

 these insects destroying all the fibrous roots — 

 just sucking the life out of them. Mr. Carey, 

 who has the management of my place, uncovered 

 the inside border and deluged it with tobacco- 

 water, which must have destroyed millions of 

 them. By the time the weather admitted uncov- 

 ering the outside border, the fibrous roots were 

 all destroyed, and the larger roots knotted and 

 black. Shortly after, the American Agrictcltm-ist 

 for May came to hand, and then we saw what we 

 had to contend with. Never having had any- 

 thing of the kind before, we did not know what 

 these insects were. We had everything hauled 

 away — vines, root and branch, boards, drainage, 

 cvoylhing — lioping thereb)- to save an older 

 house, but to no purpose. This last was an old, 

 established house. During the past fifteen years 

 thousands of pounds of as fine hot-house grapes 

 as I ever saw have been cut from it. Until this 

 spring the borders have been such a mass of 

 healthy, fibrous roots, that they could not be 

 forked over. The men had to spade them over 

 as best they could. Now, not a fiber is to be 

 seen, and the great, thick old roots are a black- 

 ened mass. In this liouse the Gall-louse has 

 also made its appearance this season. 



The article on the Phylloxera referred to, is an 

 exact description of our case, as if it had been 

 written for that purpose. 



Some of our grape-growing neighbors, who 

 are threatened with the same trouble, are trying 

 to think it is not Phylloxera. For their sakes we 

 hope it is not. Will you please decide the ques- 

 tion, and very much oblige ? — Hettie B. Trimble, 

 West Chester, Pa. 



The smaller rootlets of grape-vine you send 

 show the work of Phylloxera, but not to a serious 

 extent. The large swelling on the roots, how- 

 ever, cannot possibly be the work of Phylloxera ; 

 but whether or not it is caused by the little Crus- 

 tacean, which was very numerous in the creases 

 of the swelling, we have no means of ascertain- 

 ing. Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., to whom we sub- 

 mitted specimens, thinks that they are the young 

 of some species of P/iyloscia, or Porccllio, and 

 says that he never heard of their being injurious 

 to plants. 



Descriptive Department. 



^mm {Q gium jj^ diameter, opening in a transverse 

 slit on the under side of leaf; the lips with a 

 white pubescence, though the inside of the gall 

 is smooth. 



The gall in June is crowded with Phylloxera; 

 of all ages, from the newly hatched young to the 

 winged female — a fact which indicates that the 

 females have been breeding within the gall, as 

 there is no stem-mother noticeable. The eggs 

 are very small and translucent, and must hatch 

 very rapidly. 



Phylloxera ca)yic-a7>ellana, n. sp. — Gall, look- 

 ing somewhat like a filbert, on the under side of 

 the leaf of Carya, being perfectly smooth and 

 flush with the upper side of the leaf, forming 

 above a broad, somewhat circular, pale-yellowish 

 spot, either flush with the surface of the leaf, or 

 slightly depressed. The surface of the gall is 

 slightly sticky, and in this respect and in the 

 mode of opening recalls P. carycc-gumhiosa. It 

 may at once be distinguished from that, however, 

 by being sessile. 



In June crowded with the insects mostly in 

 the pupa state, or already winged, though many 

 young are also to be found, the j'oung being 

 quite pale and colorless, and the yellow color 

 becoming more distinct with age. 



Both these galls were sent by Mr. William H. 

 Ashmead, of Jacksonville, Fla., and in them was 

 found the same orange Dipterous larva {Diplosis) 

 so often found preying on similar gall-lice further 

 North. 



NEW HICKORY GALLS MADE BY PHYLLOXERA. 



BV C. V. RILEV. 



Phylloxera cary<c-scissa, n. sp.— Gall, a flat- 

 tened, smooth, green swelling on the leaf of 

 Carya alba, very similar both above and below, 

 usually confluent, circular, and varying from 



TWO NEW BEES OF THE GENUS SPHECODES. 



BY W. 11. PATTON, WATEKHURY, CONN. 



Sphecodcs arvenis. — ? . Mandibles armed with 

 a tooth, as usual. Vertex not tuberculate. Disk 

 of thorax shining. Abdomen strongly punc- 

 tured ; red, the tip blacks 



5 . Entirely black, Antennso submoniliform. 



Agrees in size with .S". dichroa, Sm. ; but differs 

 from that species in the mate being entirely black, 

 and in the female having the tip of the abdomen 

 black. 



Very common in the Eastern and Middle At- 

 lantic States. 



Sphecodcs falcifer. — $. Mandibles unarmed; 

 labrum deeply emarginate. Vertex not tubercu- 

 late. Thorax opaque. Segments i — 4 of the ab- 

 domen red. 



^ . Entirely black. 



May be distinguished from S. confertus Say, 

 by the 4th segment of the abdomen being red in 

 the female. Agrees in size with the preceding 

 species. The form of the mandibles and labrum 

 separate the female from all other species known 

 to me. 



Common in New England. 



