Clje Canadian Entomologist. 



VOL. IX. LONDON, ONT., JULY, 1S77. ~ No. 7 



REMARKS UPON THE CYNIPID^. 



BY H. F. BASSETT, WATERBURY, CONN. 



In an article published in the Entomologist for May, 1873, I gave 

 the results of my observations upon the genus Cynips, so far as they 

 related to the agamous reproduction of certain species. 



I showed that at least two two-gendered species, C. q. operator O. S. 

 and a species nearly related to, if not identical with, C. q. batatus Bassett, 

 were followed in the next generation by a brood composed entirely of 

 females. 



I had reared thousands of C. q. batatus of both generations, not for 

 one, but for a series of years, and always with the same results. The 

 early summer brood from Ipaf galls was always made up of both sexes in 

 nearly equal numbers. The brood from the late summer galls came out 

 in the spring (from twig galls), just as the leaves began to appear, and 

 were all females. 



In the case of C. q. operator there could be really no room for doubt, 

 as this very peculiar species was repeated, except in size, in the females I 

 took in the act of ovipositing. 



If there could be any doubt, it was certainly dispelled when Prof. C. 

 V. Riley reared from the acorn cup galls produced by C. q. operator, gall 

 flies exactly like those I had found ovipositing in the buds of the shrub 

 oak. 



I advanced the idea in that article that when the true history of the 

 one-gendered species should be known, they would be found to alternate 

 with a generation of males and females. Further proof of this than I 

 now offer will hardly be called for. 



