132 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



form swelling of the twigs with a depression on each side where the 

 wall is thinner and through which the insect emerges. 



Mesilla Park, N. M., abundant; also at Paraje, N. M., Prof. 

 C. H. T. Townsend described the gall in Entomological News, 

 September 1893, pages 242-43. (Cockerel!) 



Lasioptera tertia Ckll. 

 1898 Cockerell, T. D. A. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 2:328 



Gall. A potato-shaped smooth swelling on the twigs of some 

 asteroid composite. The galls are of various shapes, sometimes 

 subglobular, 11x9 mm, or elongated, 17 mm long, constricted in the 

 middle; they are always quite broad and more or less irregular. 



Paraje, New Mexico; galls collected in April 1898. (Cockerell) 



Lasioptera desmodii Felt 



1907 Felt, E. P. N. Y. 



p. 106-7; separate, p 



1908 



P. 325 



io-ii 



N. Y. 



State Mus. Bui. no, 



State Mus. Bui. 124, 



The midge appears to be rather common in 

 Albany and vicinity, as its galls were taken 

 a number of times and the adults reared. 

 The long, whitish larvae winter within the 

 gall, the adults appearing early the following 

 spring. 



Gall. The gall is a slight enlargement on 

 three sides of the stem, usually about 1.8 cm 

 long. Most of the polythalamous galls appear 

 to originate in a bud which seems to be the 

 center of the swelling, though that part is no 

 more enlarged than others. This gall occurs 

 on several tick trefoils, Meibomia cus- 

 pidatuni, M. canadensis, Des- 

 modium acuminatum and D. ? 

 canadense. Polygnotus species was 

 reared from this gall. 



Larva. Length 3 mm, slender, whitish. 

 Head small; antennae long, slender; breast - 

 Fig. 15 Lasioptera bone long, stout, bidentate, with a minute, 

 desmodii, two types median tooth; head slightly expanded; skin 

 of gall (original) rather coarsely shagreened, posterior extrem- 



ity broadly rounded, with a few minute setae. 

 Male. Length 1 mm. Antennae dark brown, basally yellowish 

 transparent; 21-22 segments, the fifth with a length about three- 

 fourths its diameter; terminal segment short, broadly rounded 



