Heliozela aesella Chambers.

The larvae produce flattened galls on leaves of grape. The gall consists of an irregularly shaped thickening of the leaf, situated on a vein and extending to either side of it, the area involved rarely being more than one centimeter in diameter, with a thickness perhaps three or four times that of the leaf itself. The galls are paler in color than the rest of the leaf and about equally distinct on the upper and lower surface. The larva consumes most of the leaf substance in the gall, especially in a large oval area, where only the epidermis is left. At maturity it cuts from this area, an oval case, in outline similar to that of Antispila. This case, however, does not remain flat, but is rolled up into a spindle, which falls to the ground. The spindle is flattened at each end, where a semi-circular fissure is left, guarded by the closely appressed, flattened, projecting ends. The spindle is then covered with fine panicles of earth, and lined throughout with close whitish silk. Within this cocoon an inner pupal chamber is partitioned off; this tapers to a point at the posterior end, but at the anterior end is closed by a flat transverse sheet of papery silk. In emergence, the pupa pushes up this sheet of silk and protrudes from the cocoon to the side of the median line between the flat projecting ends.

The moths appear in the latter part of April and in early May; the galls develop on the expanding leaves and are fully formed by the beginning of June. The larvae reach maiurity about the middle of June. There is but one generation a year.

In the vicinity of Cincinnati I have found the galls only on Vitis cordifolia [vulpina]. In other localities it occurs on other species of grape; specimens of the work on a cultivated variety from Boston were submitted to me for identification some years ago by Mr. J. L. King, at that time on the staff of the Ohio Agri- cultural Experiment Station. In a letter accompanying the specimens he wrote that it has also been observed in the grape belt in northern Ohio.

Heliozela sp. near aesella Chambers

Heliozela sp. near aesella Chambers is a gall-forming moth. In the spring, irregular swellings are produced along the sides of young shoots, leaf petioles, and flower stems of muscadine grapes. The tiny Heliozela caterpillars feed within the galls, producing channels which weaken plant structures and contribute to breakage. Mature larvae drop form the vine in tubes constructed about themselves and pupate in soil or debris. No leaf galls of H aesella Chambers, a close relative, were found on muscadine grapes.

?Coleophora sp.

Vitis
Leaf or tendril galls
Irregular, subglobose leaf gall showing a swelling on the upper surface and a globose enlargement on the lower

Heliozela

The tulip-tree blister-gall maker, Thecodiplosis liriodendri, for example, at first makes a thick-walled discoid gall within the leaf, and later eats most of it away before completing its growth. The little caterpillar, Heliozela aesella, does likewise, in the leaves of grape. By the time it has finished its tenancy the walls of the gall are almost wholly consumed.

In the introductory chapter (p. 24 [quoted above]) we have spoken of the habits of Heliozela aesella, interesting because they involve both gall-making and gall-consuming, along with case bearing. Of the larvae of the genus Heliozela known in Europe, H. stanella first mines in the thickened petioles of oak leaves and afterwards passes up into the leaf blade where it makes a mine and cuts out a case. H. hammoniella mines in the twigs of oak at first and then passes through the petiole and into the leaf-blade. Two species, H. sericiella and H. resplendella first mine down the midrib of a leaf and then turn up the edge of the leaf and make a blotch mine. In these instances the blotch is hardly more than big enough to make the case. They pupate in their cases on the ground.

? Coleophora sp.

Vitis
Leaf or Tendril Galls
Subglobular leaf swelling on lower surface, caterpillar, summer

Heliozela. ? aesella N. sp.?

Described from a single specimen taken April 24th, resting on the body of an apple tree (on the edge of a forest, however), near Covington, KY.