THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



105 



gall resides the larva of the gall-maker — a little, 

 footless, white, cylindrical fd:i'iib, with a large 

 yellowish head and tawny jaws. When full- 

 grown iu the spring of the fol- ^fp^g 70.] 

 lowing year, this larva meas- 

 ures 0.28 of an inch in length, 

 and very much resembles that 

 of the Potato Stalk-weevil, 

 which we figured iu Volume 1, 

 No. 2 (Fig. 1-i, a). During the 

 latter part of June it trans- 

 forms witliin the gall to a pupa, 

 which also very much resem- 

 bles that of the Potato Stalk- 

 weevil, diflering principally iu 

 the wings and legs reaching 

 down to iths the length of the 

 body instead of but i as in that 

 species. About two weeks af- 

 terwards it changes into the 

 Sesostris Snout-beetle {Bari- 

 diiis Hesudris, 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 dittersfroin most i^"i">-«'fei 

 Snout-beetles by being higldy polished, and 

 especially by the peculiar glassy undulating ap- 

 pearance of the wing-cases. 



We think it highly probable that this Grape- 



•As regiii'ds the i-cim-ct nomencliiture ol* this beetle, it is 

 alluweil on all hands that up to December, 186S, tlic species 

 wiis undescribi-il. In March, IstiU, the .Junior Kditor de- 

 sc.ribeil it, in the Missouri .Agricultural lleport as iiuoted 

 above, uuder the lunnc of "Ma darns viliSf" ami gave uearlv 

 the same account of its larval and pupal history as has beeil 

 alreailv prescntc^l to our rcadeis. In December, 18(iS. or 

 three liiouths hciorc ihc.Jnuiiu' Kditor published his Iteport, 

 Dr. .John L l.cContf, in a I*ai,er '-On tlie species of Bari- 

 diua inhabiting the Inited states,'' |iidjlished in Proc Acad. 

 Nat. He Phil., described it (page .iW) under the name of 

 " Baridius Senostris " Couseuucntly. Or Let.'oute's specific 

 name necessarily takes precedence of the .Innior Editor's. 



In the paper on Baridi its jui^t now referred to, it is stated 

 Unit B Sesostris "depredates on grajie-vine, i)roducing the 

 gall described Ijy Mr Walsh as t iliscutinus." Now, the 

 Senior Editor recollects having sent specimens of the beetle 

 to l>r. LeConte in the summer ol ISOS, with an account of the 

 gall that It generates; anil in his private c.jrrespondence with 

 that gcntlcnian he iiiav po>...ibl\ li:i\.- given some name or 

 other, no mailer wliat, to tlie aiiU it.-elf lie distinctly re- 

 members, however, being ^ooii alliiwards favored by Dr. 

 I*(Jinile with a sight ot the Manuscript of the I'aper on Bari- 

 dius, then-!earl\ ready lor publicalion ; and he can testify 

 upon ' ath to his having era.sed in pemil th " I iliscunnus " 

 that appeared there, and sul>stitutecl for that name tile one 

 which we have adojited in this Article, namely " Vilis 

 ptdntts." In any case, no negative fact can be belter 

 e8tat)Iished, than that the Senior Kditor never descril)ed 

 in print this gall under any name whatever, as is errone- 

 ously, and we doubt not uninlentionally, a.sserted by 

 the author of the Paper "on I' S Baridius " Con- 

 be(iuently, as the .luiiior I'jlitor did not give any scientific 

 name to this gall in his otlicial Keport, and as a'mere men- 

 tion bv Dr l.eConte of anv |airli<-,ular scienlitic name- 

 erroneouslv sii|, posed bv hiin to liave been given to this 

 gall by tlie Senior Kdiior along with a proper .scienlitic. 

 description— aniounts, according to scienlitic etiipielte, to 

 just nothing at all ; the name which we now for the lirst time 

 give it, being authenticated by ii liiJl description, must take 

 precedence of an.\ other 

 As to the generic name of this Smuit-beetle, we ackuowl- 

 ' edge that we still have our doubts whelher it be properlv 

 reterable to Bnridiiis rather than to Madarm: but since Dr 

 LeConte is confessedly the King ol the Loleoptera iu this 

 country, we yield at buce to his authority lU this matt«r. 



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

 tures which the female beetle makes in deposit- 

 ([■"ig. 71.) ^"S lier egg, and by the drop of 

 poison, which from analogy we 

 may infer tliat 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 

 yei- cane, we have noticed that the 

 own -iroMu. ij^pyjj^ i^j^^j 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 caiie where we met 

 with it. So far as we have observed, the 

 Grape-wound Gall does not cause the death 

 of the cane upon whicli it grows, nor 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 ofl" and burning the 

 infested caues at any time before the Snout- 

 beetle leaves them in the forepart of the follow- 

 ing July. 



We have noticed iu September, upon tlie leaf- 

 stems of the common Virginia Creeper (Ampel- 

 opsis quinqiiefoUa) , 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 aii undescribed species of the 

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

 which we had ourselves originally referred the 

 Sesostris Snout-beetle. This Virginia Creeper 

 Snout-beetle {Madarus ainpelopsidos, new spe- 

 cies) is met with inside the gall iu September, 

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

 from the Se.sostris Snout-beetle, except in being 

 a trifle more robust, and of a uniform shiniug 

 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 referriug 

 both these gall-producing insects to the same 

 genus {Madarus), 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 dift'erent, but closely allied genera 

 {Madarus and Baridius'), we have, in deference 

 to his deservedly high authority, adopted his 

 nomenclature. 



