554 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
There art' two pUUet eaudad of each incision ; these plates are usually simple, hut 
are sometimes toothed j occasionally then it ■ third plate in one or more of these 
places. There are three to four irregolsi Blender pistes between the third anil fourth 
pairs of spines. The lirst, second, and third pairs of spinet arc situated as in allied 
species; the fourth pair is at two-thirds the distance from the lobes to the penulti- 
mate segment. Desoribed from five specimens from maple, two from peach, seven 
from OSage orange, twelve from hackherry, fifteen from ash, and eleven from Staphyllea 
trifnliata. 
Variety. — A form of Aspidiotus was found, the scales of which I am unahle to dis- 
tinguish from those of A. ancylus; hur the last segment of the female presents the 
following difference from the typical form of this species: There are no plates be- 
tween the third and fourth pairs of spines ; and the vaginal opening is mesad the 
anterior spinnerets of the posterior lateral groups, instead of the posterior memhers 
of the same groups. The variation in the number of the spinnerets is greater in my 
specimens of the variety than in those of the typical form, there being in some cases 
seventeen on the anterior laterals, and nine in the posterior laterals. Described 
from twenty-one specimens from lindeu, eleven from beech, eighteen from oak, and 
four from water-locust. 
Scale of male. — The scale of the male resembles that of the female in color, but is 
smaller and more elongated. Length 1.2 mm , width 0.6 mm . 
Male. — The male is easily distinguished from all other species known to us by the 
small size of its wings. We have bred numerous specimens from seven species of 
plants : Maple, Staphyllea, hackherry, ash, osage orange, peach, and water-locust. 
These males show considerable variation, and for a time I believed that I had two 
species. In each the color of the body is orange yellow ; in the former, which was 
bred from peach, the thoracic band is dark brown, and the distal joints of the antenna- 
are not enlarged ; in the latter, which was bred from ash, the thoracic band is of the 
same color as the remainder of the body, and the distal joints of the anteume are con- 
spicuously enlarged. These two forms shade into each other, and each was bred 
from plants which were infested by the typical females only. 
Habitat. — Davenport, Iowa (Putnam), Washington, and western New York, Dis- 
trict of Columbia. (Comstock.) 
26. The ash gall-mite. 
Phyioptus fraxini Garmau. 
Class Arachnida; order Acarixa. 
In Mr. S. A. Forbes' twelfth report as State Entomologist of Illinois, 
Mr. H. Garinan describes two gall- mites found on the asb, tbe first of 
which produces galls on the leaves of the green ash, Fraxinus viridis, 
Michx. 
The light-green color of these galls so strongly contrasts with the dark leaves that 
the latter appear at a little distance to be spotted with light. It is a depressed wart- 
like gall. The center of its cavity is about iu the 
plane of the leaf, as the projection above and be- 
low is nearly equal. The outer surface is vari- 
ously indented, in some cases as if with the ringer- 
nail. The outline seen from above is elongate, 
circular, or quite irregular. The opening beneath 
is a slit, surrounded by a raised lip clothed with 
Fig. 186.— Vertical section of a Phy- * „ , , 
toptus gall from a leaf of the preen ash wbite hairs - 0ne or more folds wlth mau > ' 
(Fraxinus viridig). AfterGarman. celled hairs at their free edges project into the 
interior, dividing it into more or less perfect com- 
partments. The median of these folds is usually largest, and sometimes reaches the 
