APHID PESTS OF MA.NE. l6l 



russet color. The migrants from this gall fly to the larch to 

 deposit eggs and the young develop upon the larch. Chermes 

 consolidatus Patch produces small pale pink or green galls on 

 black spruce the migrants from which seek the larch as an alter- 

 nate host. Chermes floccus Patch develops in galls on black and 

 red spruce and migrates to the needles of the white pine to 

 oviposit. Its food plants are thus the same as those of pinifoliae 

 but both the galls and the insects are too distinct to be in any 

 respect confused. Chermes similis Gillette, first described in 

 Colorado, is found commonly on twigs of Norway, black, red, 

 and white spruces in Maine, the infestation causing a scraggly 

 appearance of the twig rather than a well defined gall. All these 

 species are discussed and figured in Bulletin No. 173 of this Sta- 

 tion. 



There was also a collection of Chermes (No. 111-09) taken 

 on fir {A. balsamea Mill) the trunk of which was covered with 

 flocculent patches like those of pinicorticis on white pine. The 

 collection comprised apterous females and their eggs and newly 

 hatched nymphs, no winged forms being found. 



The third group of coniferous aphids has not been previously 

 worked up for Maine. These belong to the genus Lachnus and 

 allied genera. To Lachnus belong the giants of the Maine 

 aphids and the colonies are frequently exceedingly abundant at 

 Orono. In June 1904 a whole hillside was covered with honey- 

 dew, the ground and the vegetation on it being sticky from the 

 liquid dropped by Lachnus colonies feeding above. Much of 

 this sweet liquid crystalized into whitish sugar so that the rocks 

 in some places looked frosted. It was impossible to touch a 

 branch without being heavily spattered with a shower of honey 

 dew. Although these aphids have not been so plentiful any year 

 since, they have been present each season on pine, larch, fir and 

 the spruces. 



Lachnus curvipes n. sp. Nos. 31-05; 9'2-o8; 69-10. On 

 Abies balsamea Mill. This distinctive species appears to be a 

 not uncommon insect on the balsam fir in the vicinity of Orono. 



Apterous oviparous female. Head dark brown or blackish. 

 Antennae yellowish brown hirsute. Prothorax black. Thorax 

 black and slightly pulverulent. Legs with femora yellowish 

 brown, tibire yellowish brown and distal tip black, tarsi black. 

 1st tibia straight and about 1.9 mm. long, 2nd tibia straight and 

 about 2.25 mm long, 3rd tibia conspicuously bowed and about 



