REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IQO/ 323 



LASIOPTERA Meig. 



Members of this entire group are usually easily recognized by 

 the thickly scaled costa, subcosta and third vein, the two latter 

 being close to the' anterior margin of the wing and the last named 

 usually uniting therewith near the middle. It and allied genera have 

 a characteristic coloration, usually being thickly clothed with dark 

 brown scales and in many species the dorsum of the abdomen is 

 conspicuously ornamented with silvery white markings, the latter 

 being either in the form of a margin along the anterior or posterior 

 edge of the abdominal segments or in a series of submedian spots 

 resting upon the posterior margin of the segments. The members 

 of this genus present a wide range in the number of antennal seg- 

 ments, those of the female varying from i6 in the case of L . 

 flavescens to 33 in L. quericiflorae. The segments of 

 the male antennae vary from 16 in L . lycopi to 21 or 22 in 

 the male ofL. desmodii. Some species have the same number 

 of antennal segments in both sexes, while in the majority the female 

 possesses two to four or five more than her consort. There seems 

 to be no law governing this variation. Certain of the females pos- 

 sess a peculiar group of heavy, stout, recurved, chitinous hooks on 

 the dorsum of the lobes of the ovipositor. This peculiar structure 

 is present in several rather widely separated forms. 



The species belonging to this genus breed for the most part in 

 more or less irregular subcortical galls on the stems of both herba- 

 ceous and woody plants. An interesting form, L. c a u 1 i c o 1 a , 

 has been reared from apparently normal Diervilla stems. All 

 species of this genus appear to winter in their galls. Those which 

 live in herbaceous stems emerge, as a rule, in early spring, while 

 the forms subsisting upon woody stems are more likely to fly during 

 June. A few species breed in leaf galls ; for instance, L . c o r n i 

 in an ocellate, highly colored, blisterlike gall on the leaves of 

 Cornus alternifolia; L. vitis inhabits the common 

 tumid leaf or tendril gall on grape, while L. impatientifolia 

 produces a somewhat similar gall on the under side of the leaf of 

 the snapdragon (I m p a t i e n s f u 1 v a) . Blackberry leaves fre- 

 quently have near the base a -hard, corky, warty gall caused by 

 L. farinosa. Lasioptera excavata has a more 

 singular habit, since the larvae occur in a true leaf mine in the 

 foliage of Crataegus. The galls may be monothalamous or poly- 

 thalamous, some of the latter being inhabited by a considerable 

 number of larvae, as in the case ofL. cylindrigallae and 

 L.tumifica. 



