/6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Experience lias demonstrated the impracticability of satisfac- 

 torily controlling this insect by fumigation with hydrocyanic acid 

 gas, since it is impossible to destroy the maggots with a strength 

 which can be used with safety and repeated fumigations are very 

 apt to endanger the plants. A most satisfactory though drastic 

 measure is to clean thoroughly the house during midwinter, at a 

 time when the insects are dormant in the soil. This means the 

 removal and destruction of the plants ; the soil on the benches should 

 be carted out for some distance so that there will be no danger of 

 midges emerging with the coming of warm weather and making 

 their way back to the house. The interior should be thoroughly 

 cleaned so as to destroy any insects which might take refuge in loose 

 accumulations of soil, cracks or crevices. If it is impractical to clean 

 out such accumulations, a thorough spraying with a contact insecti- 

 cide, such as kerosene emulsion, is advisable. The house, it is perhaps 

 needless to add, should be restocked with clean plants and every 

 effort made to avoid reinfestation. 



Chrysanthemum gall midge (Diarthronomyia hypo- 

 gaea H. Lw.). The reception of infested plants or midges from 

 the states of Maine, Delaware, South Dakota and Washington and 

 Victoria, B. C, during the past year indicates that this recently 

 introduced pest is becoming widely disseminated, probably through 

 the shipment of infested plants. It has been previously recorded 

 by us from California, Michigan and Oregon, and also from eastern 

 Canada. This is probably only a partial record of the distribution 

 of this insect, a species which may produce numerous galls upon 

 the leaves and stems of most cultivated chrysanthemums, and if 

 there is a serious infestation the growth of young plants may be 

 arrested and make them practically worthless for blossoming pur- 

 poses. These facts justify a close watch on the part of chrysanthe- 

 mum growers and the exercise of every reasonable precaution to 

 prevent this insect obtaining a foothold in greenhouses previously 

 uninfested. 



More recently this insect has been reported from Cromwell, 

 Conn., by Prof. G. W. Herrick, from Providence, R.-L, and Fitch- 

 burg, Mass., by A. I. Bourne of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College and from Swampscott, Mass., by W. S. Regan of the same 

 institution. 



One of the easiest methods of detecting the young, inconspicuous 

 galls is to allow the leaf to slip through the loosely-closed fingers, 

 a process which will readily disclose the presence of slight swellings. 

 It is particularly desirable to recognize even the smallest galls if 



