i6o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Inhabitants of Cynips Kollari Galls. — In 

 answer to Mr. E. C. Goody's inquiries, it may be as 

 well to observe that "oak-apple" is a misnomer as 

 applied to the Devonshire gall of Cynips Kollari. The 

 name oak-apple properly belongs to one indigenous, 

 spongy, many-celled, globose gall, which appears in 

 May. Cynips Kollari was not known in England 

 until 1849, or, perhaps, as early as 1824. The oak- 

 apple of Andinus terminalis is tinged with pink when 

 young. The young galls of C. Kollari appear in July, 

 and are a deep green in colour "and very solid in 

 their texture, changing to a rich brown in autumn. 

 The metallic greenfly Mr. G. mentions is evidently 

 a parasite — most likely the Callimome Devoniensis — 

 while the small brown insects like cynips are inquilines, 

 or lodgers, of the genus Synergus, which belong to 

 the Cynipidre, though only feeding on the substance 

 of the gall, not on the larva of the cynips, like the 

 true parasite larva. If Mr. G. will take the trouble 

 next winter to keep the well- developed galls and the 

 stunted ones apart, he will find that very few Synergus 

 come from the former, but hosts from the latter, as 

 also a small species of Callimome (C. elegans), the 

 larva of which feeds, I presume, on the larva of the 

 Synergus, and not on that 'of the cynips, as the 

 Calimome Devoniensis does. All this confusion, or 

 perhaps I should say order, occurs in other oak-galls, 

 and the near affinity of Synergus to cynips causes 

 great perplexity at times. — H. W. Kidd, Goda lining. 



Oar-fish in St. Andrew's Bay. — A very fine 

 specimen of the oar-fish was found on the beach near 

 the Middle Fishings, at Tent's Muir, by some salmon 

 fishers on the 10th of April last. It was I2§ feet 

 long, 26 inches in girth at the thickest part, and had 

 a uniform, silvery, granulated appearance. The 

 pectoral fins, which were about 4 feet long, resem- 

 bled wires in shape, and terminated in a lobe. The 

 dorsal fin extended the whole length of the fish, 

 which had no caudal or ventral fins. Specimens of 

 the oar-fish are extremely rare, and this is said to be 

 ■the only one found on the British Islands. It was 

 secured by the directors of the University Museum at 

 St. Andrews. — A. F. 



"The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine." 

 — We are glad to see that with the commencement 

 of vol. xvii. of this well-known magazine, the already 

 powerful editorial staff will be further strengthened 

 by the names of Messrs. Charles G. Barrett and 

 Edward Saunders. 



An Entomostracon living in Tree-tops.— 

 Under this title "-Nature," May 20th, 1880, has given 

 a translation of the account which appeared in 

 "Kosmos," relating to Fritz Midler's discovery of 

 a little crustacean, whose relations one is accustomed 



to find among the seaweeds, living in the moist and 

 shady hiding-places between the leaves of the Brome- 

 liads. It belongs to the family of the Cytheridas, 

 and was found on the trees of Dr. Midler's wood at 

 Itajahy, in the Brazils. He has given to it the name 

 of Elpidinm bromeliaritm, for though it possesses no 

 very marked peculiarities in its feet, still it does not 

 fit into any of the genera into which the old genus 

 Cythere has been of late subdivided. 



" The Forester " is the title of a magazine pub- 

 lished by the Nottingham High School. In the last 

 number (Easter 1800) we have an ably- written and 

 lengthy article on "Tennyson as an Interpreter of 

 Nature," and a capital paper on "The Origin of 

 Sandstones." 



Oxford Natural History Society. — A 

 Society for the university town and county of 

 Oxford has been formed, the Botanical presidents 

 being Professor Lawson, M.A. (Phanerogams), H. 

 Boswell, Esq. (Cryptogams) ; Ornithology, Oliver 

 V. Aplin, Esq. ; Entomology, Professor Westwood, 

 F.R.S. ; Geology, E. B. Boulton, Esq. ; Hon. Secre- 

 tary, G. C. Druce, F.L.S. The meetings will be held, 

 by the kind permission of Professor Lawson, in the 

 lecture rooms at the Botanical Gardens ; the society 

 already numbers more than fifty members. 



Provincial Societies. — We have received the 

 annual reports and proceedings of the " Belfast 

 Naturalists' Field Club " for the two years ending 

 1879. Besides some interesting accounts of trips to 

 various places for scientific purposes, there are abstracts 

 of papers on "Water as an Agent of Denudation," 

 by the Rev. Canon Macllwaine, D.D., M.R.I. A., in 

 which the author showed how water performs its 

 work as a denuding agent, (1) as ice, in which form 

 glaciers grind away the rocks_by their constant, though 

 slow, movement ; (2) as rain, which washes the 

 disintegrated rock into the rivers, and thus to the sea ; 

 (3) its chemical action, when it contains carbonic 

 acid, dissolves the hardest calcareous rocks, and often 

 deposits them as stalagmites. Two papers are pub- 

 lished, one entitled "Notes on Birds," by Mr. 

 Thomas Darragh ; and the other ' ' Our Northern 

 Rocks, and where to find them," by Mr. W. Gray, 

 M.R.I.A., and an abstract from a paper on "The 

 supposed Pliocene Fossiliferous Clays near Lough 

 Neagh," by Mr. William Swanston, F.G.S., in which 

 the author says that having had reason to_ doubt the 

 correctness of the supposition that these beds were 

 Pliocene, he submitted some of the shells, which had 

 been referred to the genus Unio, to Dr. J. G. Jeffreys, 

 F.R.S. , who after examining them came to the con- 

 clusion that they were the shells of Mytihis edulis, 

 which occurs in all newer tertiary formations. Mr. 

 Swanston also forwarded a quantity of the material 

 to Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S., of Belfast, for micro- 

 scopic examination, and that gentleman detected 



