770 [Assembly 
apical margin. These four bands upon the wings thus present a resemblance to the 
Homan numerals YII placed in an inverted position. 
Another of our New.York species of Tephritis is closely related to the one now 
described, and probably has the same habits, though as I have met with it but sel¬ 
dom I have not had an opportunity to observe its movements. It is slightly smaller 
than the honey-dew fly, and like it has four black bands upon the wings, but here 
these hands are broader than the intervening spaces, and the two inner ones are con¬ 
fluent at their posterior ends, which do not reach the margin, whilst the two outer ones 
are confluent at their anterior ends, the bands thus resembling an upright letter V 
followed by an inverted one. The outer band, moreover, only touches the margin at 
its ends, and the wings are somewhat opake and of a white color, with only the axil¬ 
lary portion hyaline. The head and antenna; are light yellow, the face white; the 
thorax is black, with a milky-white stripe on each side and four broad ash-grey 
stripes above, the outer ones interrupted towards their anterior ends; the scntel is 
white and waxy, or porcelain-like; the abdomen is black, with the posterior edges of 
its segments whitish; the feet and shanks are yellow, the thighs black. I name 
this, in allusion to the marks upon its wings, the Lettered Tephritis (T. tabellaria ). 
In this connection I may observe that the fly named Tephritis 
Asteris by Dr. Harris (New England Insects, p. 498,) the larva 
of which infests the stalks of our American Asters producing glo¬ 
bular swellings or galls therein, the size of walnuts, I have never 
met with. But a larger species, attacking the Solidago or golden- 
rod in the same manner, is quite common in eastern New-York. 
This fly, however, pertains to the genus Acinia , which has been 
separated from Tephritis by Desvoidy. Every farmer’s boy has 
noticed how the slender, straight, smooth stalks of the golden-rod, 
growing with other weeds along old fences, quite often has one 
and sometimes two large round galls or ball-like swellings upon 
them, an inch in diameter, when the stalk above and below is 
less than a quarter of an inch. And many have had the curi¬ 
osity to cut into these balls, and have found a plump well-fed 
white maggot in their centre. By the first of August the swel¬ 
lings have about completed their growth, although the worm 
within is as yet so small as to be scarcely perceptible to the naked 
eye. In the winter season, the leaves having fallen and left the 
stalks naked, these balls are more frequently observed: but at 
this period of the year most of them are found to be empty, with 
a round hole perforated in them, the worm having completed its 
growth and the winged fly having come out through this perfora¬ 
tion the preceding autumn. But occasionally one of these balls 
