Unknown c-bignonioides-swollen-new-shoots

Neolasioptera c-bignonioides-circular-leaf-spot

Mr. Houser in Bulletin 194 of this Station says: "During the early summer, the tender growing tips of the catalpa become swollen and in time blacken at the point of injury. During the early part of the season the injury is usually found three or four inches below the tip, and at a lesser distance during late summer when the tree is growing less rapidly. The tip above the injury dies. Following the death of the tip in early summer, the next node below develops one or more branches, and frequently a cluster of leaves, giving the tree a bushy growth. The ultimate result, after continued topping, is a stunted, crooked, forked growth."

[Gossard seems to have identified this with *Cecidomyia catalpae* [syn: *Contarinia catalpae*], but Gagné (1989) lists this damage separately, assigning it to an undescribed midge.]

After the larvae disappear from the leaves, the resemblance of these spots to some of the fungous leaf-spot maladies is so great that for one or two seasons our botanists examined the spots very carefully at intervals with the compound microscope, the only result being to strengthen the suspicion that they were in some way caused by insects...
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[Not totally clear from the description that this damage is actually a gall, but at least some instances probably are if they are indeed induced by a *Neolasioptera* sp. Gossard assigned these to *Contarinia ['Cecidomyia'] catalpae*, but only provisionally.]

The catalpa midge. Cecidomyia catalpae Comstock