calandridae. coccotrypes letz. [schwarz.] say. [cook.] · 2019. 8. 1. · mypets in the woods and...

August--December I889.]

CALANDRIDAE.Calandra remotepunctata Gyll.Cossonus platalea Say.

SCOLYTIDAE.Pityophthorus pullus Zimm.

PS 235

Coccotrypes jalappae Letz. Detroit.[Schwarz.]

Tomicus calligraphus Germ. Pineregions. [Cook.]

De,droctonus terebrans Oliv. Pineregions. [Cook.]

A SHORT CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE CYNIPIDOUSGALL-FLIES.

BY HOMER FRANKLIN BASSETT’, WATERBURY, CT.

It was reasonable to suppose that whenthat most interesting field ofresearch intothe life history of the gall insects that re-lates to their agamic reproduction hadbeen opened, some one or more of ouryoung entomologists would have en-tered upon the investigations that were

necessary, and long ago, have done forour American what the German andFrench entomologists have done for theEuropean species.The writer, who so long ago as 1864,

published the first ctue to the solutionof the mystery of agamic reproductionin the family of the cyn@idae, has, un-

fortunately, grown old without findingthe leisure to follow, very far, the fasci-nating field for discovery that then ap-peared before him.

I have, since then, done some frag-mentary work in the way of describingnew species, and some work that I donot yet despair of giving to the world inthe shape of a monograph of the cyni-

2idae, but the limited leisure I havehad and the uncertainty of being able tofollow to results, any investigations orobservations that demanded attention ata definite time and place, has debarredme from following what I still think,one of the most interesting and impor-tant branches of entomological study.

I have gathered a few facts, however,and I beg to lay before the readers ofPsccI-IE an account of a discovery Imade this last spring, partly in the hopethat it may lead some one to go furtherin the same line,--but chiefly, becauseevery discovery in science belongs to theworld just as soon as its validity is estab-lished.One of our most common gall insects

here in Connecticut is Callirlytisfuti-lis, O. S. The galls appear in earlysummer, in great numbers on the leaves

ofuercus al3a. They are in the formof conical blotches, projecting from bothsurfaces of the leaf, but are more prom-

236 lST’CttE. [August--December ,889.

inent on the upper surface, and areabout one-fourth of an inch in diameter.Each gall produces three of four smallgall-flies that emerge about the first of

July, copulating immediately and thendisappearing. Where they went no.

body knew, or seemed to know till Ifound out their secret last spring.

Before the leaves appeared I visiteda thicket of young oaks where I hadfound these galls very abundant in pastyears, hoping to find their progenitor---whoever she might be--ovipositing inthe buds of these oaksmbut I was tooearly; she had not begun her work.But where was she napping at the timeThis question was not by any means a

new one to me.The soft, sandy loam at the roots of a

clump of oak bushes,--softer because ofthe eflicts of the fi’ost that had but re-

ce.ntly left it,--yielded to my fingers andI soon had one of the main roots laidbare. Judge of the joyful surprise it

gave me to find the bark of this root asolid mass of blister like swellings.Removing a portion of it with my

knife I found it literally full of minutelarvae, each imbedded in a mass of liv.ing vegetable pulp, but so very smalland immature were these larvae that Iwas certain that they could not arrive atmaturity in season for egg-laying in thethen swelling buds.

I uncovered other roots of this andother clumps of oaks, always findingmore or less of the larvae in the bark, andat length, in some older blisters, I foundwell grown cynipidous larvae, evidentlya year older than those first found, but

still their maturity seemed too far off forthe work to be done within the next fewdays.

I collected on that and several closesucceeding days a quantity of bark con-taining larvae, and, placing it in sand,and in a glass case, found after three orfour days that several perfect gall-flieshad come out. Within a week or soquite a number appeared, but the barkdeprived of the sap of the tree, no longerfurnished tbod for the young larvae andthey died.That nature, provident against the

extinction of her children, in this case,keeps two generations in the larval stateat the same time seems absolutely cer-tain, and I feel nearly sure there are

really three; that the larger larvae no-

ticed will not appear until next spring,and that the perfect insects were in thatstate at the time I first found the galls.But I am asked: How do you know

that these root gall-flies are the pro-ducers of thefulilgs galls? Perhaps Icannot convince the querist, but theproof I have to otter is as follows:

Suffering in health from too closeconfinement in my place of businessduring the winter, as soon as theweather would permit, I spent a part ofnearly every pleasant day in the openair. I improved these hours in watchingmy pets in the woods and thickets. Ifound hundreds of gall-flies ovipositingin the buds of oaks of various species,flies of several species, and one of theseI found abundant on the low white oakbushes. I captured many of them butleft unmolested far more than I cap

August--December 1559.] PS2CttE. 237

tured, marking the trees and the verytwigs on which they were at work.Waiting till the leaves were fully grownI found these oaks borefutilis galls inabundance, but no other species, andcomparing the flies I captured withthose I got fx’om the bark galls foundthem to be identical. Of their identitythere can be no doubt whatever.But I am asked: Do they agree in

character with the flies from thefulilisgalls? They do not; and they would,no doubt, be described as a differentspecies. They are many times largerthan the fulilis flies, and there areother points of difference. But this va-riation was to be looked for, developed,as the two generations are, under con-ditions so widely different.

Dr. Adler and other European ento-mologists, who have followed the life

history of these insects more closely thanI have been able to do, have found thatthe two generations differ so widely thatthey have been classed, by those whowere not aware of their close relation-ship, not only as two different species,but have actually been placed in differentgenera.

I name and describe this insect as fol-lows:

Callirhytis radicis, Bass. (agamousform of .N. fuNlis, O. S.) Headblack and opaque, face, cheeks andvertex with short, bristle-like hairs.Antennae very short, with fourteen dis-tinct joints; the first .joint short andthick, the second globular (scarcelyovate) length of the third one-fourthless than that of the two preceeding, the

diameter of each from the eighth to thefourteenth inclusive equals their lengththe last forms a very blunt cone. Colorof the antennae dark reddish brown,changing gradually to a dull duskybrown towards the apex.Thorax black, the punctuation fine

and beautifully regular and even. Paraposidal grooves extending throughout,broad, shining lines over the. base of thewings, a narrow but distinct medianline from the collare to the scutellulnand two parallel lines, one each side orthe median line and in close proximityto it, reaching half way from the collareto the scutellum.

Scutellum coarsely and irregularlywrinkled, the fovae round, deep andshining.Abdomen large, black with brown

translucent edges; second segment verylong and with a dense band of yellowishwhite hairs on the anterior margin, thethird segment mostly, and the remainingones quite concealed.

Legs: trochanter black, the remain-ing joints very dark cinnamon brown.Claws black, simple. Wings large,hyaline; principal veins pale brown,others colorless; radial area broad, theangle of the first transverse vein project-ing sharply into the basal portion;areolet very small and the lateral veinsbounding it entirely colorless.

Length: body, "5; antennae, o9;wings, .6.Those taken in the act of ovipositing

are in all respects like those describedexcept that the color of the antennae,legs and wings is a trifle darker,--owing,

238 PSY’CtLE. [August--December 889

no doubt, to the fact that these were ex-

posed to the sunlight while the otherswere not.

Females reared fromfuNlis galls thisseason are .to in length; the wings .to

and the antenme .07 with thirteen jointsonly, with a partial suture on one sideof the terminaljoint.The median line on the thorax entire-

ly wanting the head less hairy but witha few scattered hairs on the thorax andon the sides of the second abdominal

segment. The wing.veins are a darkerbrown.The galls are blister-like swellings in

the smooth bark of the roots of youngwhite oak trees, completely covering theroot in some cases for the distance oftwo feet or more from the tree.

NoT..--A later examination of these insects in

strong light shows thatthe head and abdomen are reallya very dark reddish brown. In ordinary reflected lightthey are easily taken ibr black.

ON A NEW SPECIES OF PEDIOPSIS.

BY EDWARD P. VAN DUZEE, BUFFALO N. Y.

To the kindness of Mr. D. W. Co-quillett of Los Angeles, California, I amindebted for the opportunity of examin-ing a very interesting lot of ’assidaefrom that locality. Among this materialis one insect that deserves special notice.It is a species of Pedi@sis closely al-lied to the eastern viridis, and stillmore closely to the European virescens.The colors are probably somewhatfaded and possibly altered by an alco-holic bath, but this will scarcely aftctthe determination of the species. Itmay be characterized as follows:

PEDIOPSIS OCCIDINTALIS n. sp.Female.--Form of P. viridis, broader

and more robust than P. virescens.Color dull greenish yellow, uniform;propleura with a black spot; antennalseta brown. Length about 5 ram.

Face as in virescens, more distinctlypunctured than in viridis; front broaderbelow at the base of the clypeus, which

is proportionately narrower, and the

lorae are much more tumid than in that

species or virescens; the clypeus is

broadly depressed entirely across the

apex, while in viridis this depression is

confined to the narrow submargin on

either side before the lora, and is scarcelymore extended than in the Europeanspecies. Antennae pale at base, setaebrownish. Pronotum shorter and broad-er than in either of the allied species;the rugae are less distinct than in vire-

scens, but more so than in viridis.Propleura with a black spot. Ventralplate as in virescens, shorter and broadertoward the apex than in viridis, the tipemarginate, and the sides distinctly con-

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calandridae. coccotrypes letz. [schwarz.] say. [cook.] · 2019. 8. 1. · mypets in the woods and...

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