This very distinct genus regularly produces galls of about this simple type, and search for exit holes in otherwise undeformed twigs will probably produce, as I have already experienced, more species of the group. Species have been obtained heretofore only from Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, but not from the Pacific Coast. Insects were still emerging at Galt on March 29, but apparently most of them had emerged previously. The galls were mostly in the two-year-old wood, only rarely in the wood of the previous summer; but whether it takes the species more than one year to develop I cannot say because it was not carefully determined at the time which galls were producing the emerging insects.
Neuroterus decipiens, new species
Plate XXIV, Figure 9
Female.—Piceous black, pale yellow toward the mouth; antennw brown, yellowish basally; areolet small; abdomen produced dorsally; length averaging 1.7 mm. Head: As wide or slightly wider than the thorax, not widened behind the eyes; piceous black, darkest on the front, lighter on the face, pale yellowish-white toward the mouth, on the mouth-parts, and under the head for the most part; surface almost smooth, microscopically rougher in places, naked, very sparsely hairy on the lower part of the face. Antennæ brownish, first two, three, or four segments pale yellow; hairy, least so basally; 13-jointed, second joint globose, third longest and most slender, last almost twice the length of the preceding. Thorax: Piceous black, lightest on the sides; mesothorax entirely smooth and shining, naked, entirely without the usual grooves and lines; scutellum entirely smooth, shining, naked, an arcuate furrow at the base; pronotum and mesopleure almost smooth, shining, and naked, only very microscopically coriaceous. Abdomen: Piceous black, lightest on the hypopygium, smooth, shining, naked; irregularly triangulate, distinctly produced dorsally. Legs: Mostly light yellowish, yellow to piceous on tlie coxe; smooth, hairy; tarsal claws simple. Wings: Clear, minutely hairy; hind margin long-ciliate, front margin hardly ciliate; veins rather rich-brown, cubitus the lightest; areolet moderately small; cubitus reaches the basalis; radial cell long, narrow, open, the second abscissa of the radius about straight; first abscissa somewhat angulate without a projection. Length: 1.5-1.8 mm.
- Male.—Differs from the female as follows: almost wholly golden yellow, eyes about black, abdomen brownish yellow; antennae brownish apically, 14-jointed, third segment curved and incised; abdomen long, narrow-triangulate, long-pedicellate; areolet varying from somewhat larger to closed; radial area open but more nearly closed than in the female; length, 1.7-2.0 mm.
- Galls (Pl. XXIV; Fig. 9).—Clusters of egg-like cells in the leaf-blade. Each cell monothalamous, oval, about 1.7 mm. long by 1.0 mm. wide, thin-walled, entirely hollow, equally protruding from either surface of the leaf; leaf-green, drying brownish yellow. In dense, compacted clusters containing many scores of cells; on young leaves of Quercus Douglasii.
