270 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM J 



tapering; terminal segment slightly reduced, tapering, narrowly 

 rounded. Ovipositor probably as long as the abdomen, the terminal 

 lobes slender, with a length twice the diameter, narrowly rounded. 

 Otherwise nearly as in the male. Type Cecid. 784. 



Rhopalomyia antennariae Whir. 



1891 Riley, C. V. & Howard, L. O. Ins. Life, 4: 125 (Synopeas an- 

 tennariae Ashm. reared, Cecidomyia) 



1899 Wheeler, W. M. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc. Proc, p. 209-12 (Cecidomyia) 

 1908 Felt, E. P. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 124, p. 367 



This species was first reared by Dr W. M. Wheeler in the spring 

 of 1888 and 1889 and referred to the genus Cecidomyia. The gall, 

 he states, is produced from a puncture of the terminal bud of the 

 plantlet early in April, the insects probably appearing soon after 

 the snow melts. Pupation takes place the first week in May, the 

 change from the larva to the pupa being very gradual. The adults 

 appear about the middle of May and are not very active. A number 

 of galls were sent by Doctor Wheeler to the Bureau of Entomology, 

 Washington, D. C, and adults bred therefrom the last of May, 

 together with several parasites, the occurrence of Platygaster and a 

 Pteromalid being recorded. The detailed descriptions of adults 

 given below are based on material reared at Washington. Doctor 

 Wheeler states that one female kept in confinement deposited her 

 orange-colored ova in the leaf axil of a healthy green shoot of a 

 plant, most of the terminal buds of which had been previously con- 

 verted into galls. Doctor Wheeler states that an insect may deposit 

 from one to fifteen eggs in each bud, an average of three to seven 

 and that numerous larvae are found imbedded in the woolly center 

 of the gall and, though near each other, usually isolated by filaments 

 of matted hairs. This species and the associated Asphondylia 

 antennariae were so abundant as to seriously affect a large pro- 

 portion of the host plants, Antennaria plantaginif olia. 



Gall. The gall, according to Doctor Wheeler, is from about 3 to 

 5 mm in diameter, corm-shaped and is produced by a check in the 

 growth of the scapelike flower-bearing . stem, the sessile leaves of 

 which become somewhat succulent, broader and longer than under 

 nornial circumstances, and excepting the tips, which are somewhat 

 recurved, are closely applied to one another like the leaves of an onion. 

 Both surfaces of the component leaves of the gall are covered with 

 woolly hairs, while the parenchyma is more or less discolored with 

 reddish. Frequently all of the terminal buds of a plant are trans- 

 formed into galls by this insect. 



Male. Length 2 to 3 mm. Antennae about as long as the body, 

 thickly haired, light brown; 16 segments, the fifth with a stem about 

 equal the length of the basal enlargement, which latter has a length 



