2 BULLETIN 778, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION. 



This rose pest, together with a closely related species, Diplosis 

 rosivora Coq., was first collected in New Jersey, in 1886 (1). It was 

 collected later in New Jersey in 1889, in New York in 1890, in the 

 District of Columbia in 1891, 1894, and 1896, in Massachusetts in 

 1894, and in Chicago, 111., in 1897 (2, p. 15). In 1903 specimens 

 were sent to the Bureau of Entomology from Cleveland, Ohio, in- 

 festing the Meteor variety, with the report that as many as 35 larvae 

 had been taken from a single bud. Apparently the same insect was 

 received from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1905, where it was seriously dam- 

 aging the buds and tips of the La France and Duchess of Albany. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that in the houses containing both varieties 

 the heat was turned off throughout the entire winter, the corre- 

 spondent reported that the hibernating midge was not killed. 



In 1911 a heavy infestation of the variety My Maryland was re- 

 ported from Rhode Island, and in 1915 Hewitt (5) recorded the oc- 

 currence of this midge in a garden at London, Ont., infesting shoots 

 of the variety Mrs. J. Laing. In 1916 Gibson (8) reported it from 

 the same locality and also in greenhouses at Toronto, Ont. Snod- 

 grass (7) includes the rose midge among the important insect pests 

 of Indiana, and Crosby and Leonard (6) state that it attacks roses 

 grown in the open in New York. 



Although the rose midge has been reported frequently from several 

 States, it does not necessarily follow that these infestations are still 

 in existence, since some of the varieties subject to infestation have 

 been given up for more resistant and profitable varieties, and in 

 others the insects may have been exterminated by the use of insecti- 

 cides. Rose houses in the District of Columbia were repeatedly in- 

 spected during the past two years, and no infestations were located. 



DESCRIPTION.^ 



EGG. 



Fig. 1, A. 

 Egg elongate ovoid, yellowish, about 0.32 mm. long and 0.075 mm. in width. 



LARVA. 

 Fig. 1, C. 

 Full-grown larva about 1.8 mm. in length, 0.45 mm. in width, reddish in color, 

 obtuse and tubereulated on posterior segment, tubercles bearing minute apical 

 spines, lateral margins distinctly compressed, attenuated anteriorly, breast-bone 

 distinct, with distinct black spot on upper side immediately in front of breast- 

 bone. 



PUPA. 



Fig. 1, B. 

 Length of pupa 1.6 mm., width 0.53 mm. ; color varying from reddish to red- 

 dish yellow, eyes black at time of emerging from cocoon, legs and antennae 

 approaching black with head and prothorax dusky ; all segments except first 



iThe descriptions of the egg, larva, and pupa are compiled from Webster (2, p. 21—23) ; 

 tliat of the adults is copied verbatim from Felt (4). 



