REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I914 243 



certain conditions it might be exceedingly abundant. The normal 

 type of gall, namely, the aerial apical deformity, is comparatively 

 rare. On the other hand, the enlargements it produces on buds 

 starting from root stocks and rarely extending above the surface of 

 the ground, may be exceedingly common. In either case the gall 

 usually splits open much in the same way as the husks of a hickory 

 nut, allowing the reddish brown adults to escape from the somewhat 

 fibrous, polythalamous interior. The flies appear in New York the 

 latter part of August or early in September. Oviposition takes 

 place a day or two after emergence, according to the observations 

 of Miss Cora H. Clarke of Boston, Mass., the eggs being deposited 

 promiscuously in a breeding jar containing the insects. Should this 

 prove to be a normal habit of the species in the open, the insect 

 must winter as very young larvae in rudimentary galls. 



Fig. 57 Rhopalomyiahirtipes; fifth antennal segment of male, 



enlarged (original) 



The galls of this species have been taken at Elizabethtown, N. Y., 

 in numbers in and about Albany, N. Y., and at Springfield and 

 Magnolia, Mass. The gall of apparently this form was received 

 from Mr L. H. Weld of Evanston, 111. 



Gall. The aerial, better known type of gall has a diameter of 

 2.5 cm. It is smooth, brownish on the outside, the interior filled 

 with a white pithy substance containing several larvae. The type 

 of gall found at or just below the surface of the ground and evidently 

 developing from root stock buds, varies greatly in size, ranging 

 from about .5 to 2.5 cm in diameter. It may be globular or sub- 

 globular and has an interior similar to that described above. This 



