140 



Indiana University Studies 



piceoiis mandibles which are darker at the tip ; antennae with 15 seg- 

 ments, dark brown, tinged more rufous on the first two segments; 

 thorax mostly piceous black, light piceous spots on the scutellum and 

 mesopleurse, most of scutellum smoother than in the female; abdomen 

 rufous, very small, pedicellate; legs yellow rufous, the hind tibiae and 

 proximate segments of the tarsi brown; wings clearer, the infuscation 

 at the base of the radial cell less than in the female; length 2.7-3.0 mm. 



GALL. — Spindle-shaped, covered with a golden brown mass of short 

 filaments; 6. mm. wide by 11. mm. long, widest slightly above the 

 middle; distinctly tipped apically. Covered with a densely compacted 

 mass of filaments, each filament short, wholly flattened with a slendor, 

 narrow blade 2. mm. long, the tips purplish when fresh. The central 

 stem is swollen to form a thin-walled, empty larval chamber, apparently 

 monothalamous. A bud gall, or on leaves, attached to the end of the 

 mid-rib; on Quercus breviloha. 



EANGE.— Texas: Austin (Patterson). 



TYPES. — 1 female, 5 males, and 3 galls. Holotype female, para- 

 type male, and gall in The American Museum of Natural History; para- 

 type males and galls at the U.S. National Museum and with the author. 

 Labelled Austin, Texas, Q. breviloha, Patterson collection number 53. 



The g-alls were collected March 3, and adults emerged April 

 15. In this country the genus has been known previously only 

 from root galls, tho in Europe it is obtained from leaf and 

 stem galls also. 



The galls superficially resemble those of Neurotenis 

 evanescens Kinsey, described in this paper, but the anthers in 

 that gall are not particularly modified. The adult of this 

 species closely resembles Trigonaspis radicola (Ashmead) ; 

 the female of ornata differs in being more brilliant rufous in 

 color, slightly smaller, the antennae are distinctly more slender, 

 the scutellum is less rugose with the basal depression smooth 

 (rugose in radicola), and the wing veins are much heavier, 

 even the cubitus being heavy (quite faint in radicola). A 

 further study of material from more localities and hosts may 

 show that this is a variety of radicola, which occurs on Q. 

 alba, and was first described from Missouri. Ornata will 

 prove a distinct variety at least. 



The connection of ornata and radicola prompts a sugges- 

 tion concerning the life history of the species, which though 

 resting on circumstantial evidence, may be hazarded if it is 

 taken only as an hypothesis. Brodie (1896, Ann. Rpt. Clerk 

 Board Forestry, Ont., pp. 114-116) records Biorhiza forti- 

 cornis ovipositing on the rootlets of Q. alba. In a 1920 paper 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XLII, p. 374), I recorded the 



