REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST [Ql6 120, 



spots on the second to fifth segments silvery white, the sixth nar- 

 rowly margined with silvery white scales, the ovipositor pale yellow- 

 ish. Wings hyaline, costa dark brown, the third vein joining the 

 rather long, yellowish discal spot at the basal half. Halteres fuscous 

 yellowish. Legs mostly a light yellowish or yellowish brown, the 

 distal tarsal segments somewhat darker; claws rather long, stout, 

 strongly curved and armed with heavy, strongly curved teeth basally ; 

 pulvilli distinctly shorter than the claws. Ovipositor nearly as long 

 as the abdomen, basally with oval patches of heavy, halberd-shaped 

 scales; terminal lobes with a length about twice the width, densely 

 clothed dorsally with a patch of unusually long, slender, recurved 

 hooks. Type Cecid. 900. 



Lasioptera colorati n. sp. 



Numerous midges belonging to this species- were reared by Mr 

 C. N. Ainslie in the spring of 19 14 from salmon-colored larvae found 

 in the stems of Muhlenbergia collected at Elk Point, S. D. The 

 larvae occur in tubular, silken cases in the concavities of the leaflets 

 and at the base of the leaf sheath and occasionally in the stems, the 

 very base of the leaf sheath showing brownish, dead tissues though 

 no such carbonization as that produced by Lasioptera inus- 

 t o r u m Felt in the leaf sheath of Panicum virgatum. Mr 

 Ainslie recorded under date of March 2, 19 14, that usually a single 

 larva occupies one subhead but sometimes two occur side by side 

 within a leaf sheath. The larvae are never contiguous but are 

 always wrapped in a thin membrane and as many as four or five 

 occur in a single stem of Muhlenbergia. April 9, 19 14 the larvae 

 showed some activity, moving the head slowly and apparently 

 spinning a fine silk on the glass of the vial. The next day a change 

 in color was noted from a uniform salmon to a lighter shade mottled 

 with cream color, evidently a change prior to pupation. The species 

 is so abundant that a few heads of Muhlenbergia collected by Mr 

 Ainslie March 23, 191 5, contained a half dozen full-grown larvae, 

 the latter occurring under large leaf sheaths which appeared to 

 occupy the place where subheads would have grown. There is a 

 marked difference between this species and Asteromyia 

 a g r o s t i s O. S., an inhabitant of the same food plant. The adults 

 are easily separated from allied forms by the coloration of the 

 abdomen and legs. 



Larva. Length 4 mm, stout, a rather deep reddish orange, the 

 head rather long, broad, subtriangular, the antennae long, tapering, 

 apparently uniarticulate ; breastbone more or less rudimentary, 

 lance-shaped; skin coarsely shagreened, the posterior extremity 

 produced as a pair of submedian, fleshy, irregularly conical, some- 

 what wrinkled processes. 



