430 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
NOTES ON A NEW MITE ATTACKING VALLEY 
COTTONWOOD 
By P. J. O’Gara, Director, Department of Agriculture and Smelter By-Products In¬ 
vestigations, American Smelting & Refining Co., Salt Lake City, Utah 
• On May 12th of this year while examining some poplar trees ( Pop- 
ulus wislizeni S. Wats. Sarg.) near El Paso, Texas, a very interesting 
infestation of mites was noted on the current year’s growth. 
On the accompanying photograph, Plate 14, the normal foliage of 
the tree is shown at the top, while below is shown the work of the mite. 
Here the leaves which should have normally grown at the ends of the 
petioles have been very much dwarfed and cut. The general appear¬ 
ance is very much like a dense inflorescence such as one would see in 
plants which produce a large number of floral elements. The photo¬ 
graph so well illustrates the appearance of the infestation that an 
extended description is not deemed necessary. 
Examination of the affected leaves revealed a very small mite, meas¬ 
uring approximately one-tenth of a millimeter long, its width being 
about one-fourth of its length. Specimens were sent to Dr. L. O. 
Howard of the United States Bureau of Entomology with the following 
note: “The Pathologic condition of the specimen indicates to me an 
infestation of some species of mite, perhaps an Eriophyes.” 
Dr. Howard referred the specimen to Prof. P. J. Parrott, who reports, 
through his assistant Mr. H. E. Hodgkiss, that the mite is a new species 
of Eriophyes which has not been heretofore described. He also indi¬ 
cates that the type of injury produced by the mite is new. 
