IS PAEDISCA SCUDDERIANA A GALL-MAKER?

Extract

A gall from a Golden-rod, out of which a moth of this species has escaped, is figured in Second Report Insects of Missouri, page 134. In the accompanying description the author says: “There are some doubts in my mind as to whether it is a real gall-maker, or an inquiline, or an intruder on my true Solidago gall-maker (Gelechia gallœsolidaginis).” “My reasons for thinking this insect an intruder are, first, because if it were a true gall-maker, we should naturally expect to find its gall more common; second, because on several occasions I have found within the Gelechia galls,a pale worm very different from the true gray gall-making larva.” In the Can. Ent., x., 202, I asserted, perhaps too abruptly, that this moth is not an intruder, but the cause of the gall in which it resides during the larval and pupal states. In the paper cited I gave my reasons for this conclusion, reasons which I considered sufficient, namely: that it was very abundant about Buffalo, that I had followed the larvæ in the galls from soon after hatching and soon after they had pierced the stem until final transformation, and that their gall habits were somewhat characteristic.