Rhopalomyia utahensis

Rhopalomyia erigerontis

Rhopalomyia ericameriae

Rhopalomyia glutinosa

Asphondylia chrysothamni

Asteromyia gutierreziae

Rhopalomyia occidentalis

Rhopalomyia chrysothamni

Halodiplosis sarcobati

Contarinia enceliae

Rhopalomyia ampullaria

Rhopalomyia salviae

Planetella caudata

Gall. — 

Ovoid, hypertrophied leaf buds, length 10 to 11 mm., diameter 7 to 8 mm., two or three frequently being confluent, monothalamous, green or somewhat purplish and externally with short, recurved, aborted leaflets covered with a rather thick, gray arachnose pubescence. Apparently the same species was reared from a similar more globose leaf bud gall at once distinguishable by the absence of pubescence.

Rhopalomyia erigerontis new species

Hosts: Erigeron fragilis [foliosus]

This is an oval apical bud deformation with a length of 10 mm. and a diameter of 7 mm., the modified leaflets being thickly clothed with a short white pubescence.

Range: CA

Gall. — This is a deformed or aborted, usually lateral branchlet forming a small rosette, frequently with the tip more or less recurved, length 1.5 cm., diameter 1 cm. 

Gall. — These are green, glabrous, cortical stem swellings which, as they age, become brown and present a very close resemblance to a group of Lecaniums. The gall has a height of about 2 mm. and a diameter of 3.5 mm., the midge escaping through a circular apical orifice.

Asphondylia chrysothamni new species. 

Gall. — Swollen or enlarged leaf buds with a length of 5 to 6 mm. and a diameter of 3 mm., the walls being composed of short, ovate, aborted, glume-like leaflets without any specialized central cell.


Asteromyia gutierreziae new species

The midges described below were reared by Mr. P. H. Timber- lake in May and June, 1914, from a black, blister-like gall on the slender flower stems of Gutierrezia sarothrae, collected near Salt Lake City, Utah. 
Gall. — Irregular, dull black thickenings of the slender flower stems, ranging in length from 6 to 8 mm. and approximately doubling the thickness of stems, with a diameter of .5 mm. Except for its location the deformation is very similar to that of C. carbonifera.



An oval, thin-walled, pubescent cell, length about 1 mm, attached to underside of leaf and at an oblique or nearly vertical angle. Gall grayish on A. heterophylla (=A. douglasiana) to nearly black on A. tridentata. Galls on flower buds similar but thinner walled.

This midge was reared in May, 1913, by Mr, P. H. Timberlake from a pubescent, variable, conical, stem gall on rabbit brush, Chrysothamnus graveolens [Ericameria nauseosa], collected in the vicinity of Murray, Utah. The species approaches closely R. utahensis, from which it may be most easily separated by its decidedly smaller size, the fewer antennal segments and particularly by the peculiar type of gall.
Gall. — A variable, conical outgrowth of the stem with a height of about 4 mm. and a basal diameter of 2 to 3 mm. The gall contains basally, an oval, thin-walled cell with a length of 2.75 mm. and a diameter of 1.75 mm., the hollow, distal portion being filled with a slender, thread-like growth of delicate cells placed end to end and forming a rounded or, in some cases, nearly truncate plug. 

An irregular, oval bud deformation, fleshy, becoming hard and apparently composed of appressed, thickened bud scales, length 10 mm., diameter 6 mm. 

Conical, thick-walled, lateral bud gall, length 6 mm., diameter 3 mm. frequently confluent basally, sometimes twisting the stem and producing a marked deformation of the plant. The apex of individual galls may be evenly rounded or flattened with flaring lips, which latter are sometimes produced as small, leafy expansions. There is a more or less distinct orifice ...

[Felt is describing the leaf gall; use arrows at right for flower gall description] 

A somewhat flask-shaped or subconical, solitary or confluent white pubescent leaf gall, diameter at base 2 mm., height 3 mm. ... [T]he basal portion of the gall [is] thick-walled, with an oval cell having a length of about 1.5 mm. and a distal tubular, thin-walled portion separated from the larval cell only by a thin, matted layer of filaments, the top being light filled with a curled, woolly mass. 

from ... leaf galls from Salvia (Ramona) californica and S. nivea [Felt later refers to "S. nivea (or leucophylla)"]

A very different leaf gall, apparently produced by the same midge, occurs on the margins of moderately well-developed leaves. It is a typical thin-walled, tubular gall with a length of about 6 mm., a diameter of 1.5 mm. The interior is occupied by an elongate larval chamber. Basally the gall is concolorous with the leaf, the distal third being purplish, the slightly curved apex a little lighter. 

A modification of the first type of gall is seen on the aborted leaflets of S. nivea (or leucophylla). These galls are irregularly obconical, with a length of about 7 mm., a diameter of 3 mm. and are more or less confluent, otherwise nearly as described above. 

Hormomyia caudata new species

... reared ... from what were evidently modified buds or shoots of a sedge, probably Cyperus ... The galls were found at the very base of the plant and [in mid- to late April] contained both larvae and pupae ... 

GALL. Somewhat cylindrical, fleshy-walled, monothalamous, length 4 to 5 mm., diameter approximately half the length. The walls become thin upon maturity and rupture at the upper end, thus affording an opening for the escape of the pupa. 

New Western Gall Midges