•Jlo ' [December 



stjite, it is not improbable that this insect may puncture and destroy 

 the great majority of the Cecidomi/idse, that originate the gall, either 

 in the q^^ or the very young larva state, for which purpose its vei*y 

 elongate, horny, setiform mandibles, which Haliday described as '' having 

 a bulbous base and by their junction towards the tip forming a 2-valved 

 siphon," seem to be admirably adapted. (See Westw. Intr. II. p. 2 

 and p. 1. fig. 4.) The whole subject of the great paucity of Cecido- 

 myidous larvae in this and other allied galls is a mystery at present. 

 and requires further and fuller investigation. The only other insects 

 that I noticed on or in these galls, besides those already referred to. 

 none of which could be insectivorous, were a single Coleopterous (?) 

 lai-va, pedate and 2 an inch long, on August 17. which I failed to rear 

 to maturity, and a single imago of the Coleopterous Litanjus A-sjii/otus 

 IjCC, which I bred from them on August 30, and which evidently could 

 luit have been insectivorous. It is proper to add, that I did not replace 

 the galls in my breeding-jar during the summer by fresh specimens so 

 often as I should have done, in order to become thoroughly acquainted 

 with their Natural History; and that it is therefore quite possible that 

 a considerable number of larvae may have escaped from the galls on the 

 trees shortly before August 14. (See above p. 574. ) 



It is well known that Economic Entomologists have been greatly ex- 

 ercised, to account for the cause of the affection of the leaves of the 

 Peach-tree known in the East as "the curl." Some have attributed it 

 to the action of Aphis, and others partly to Aphis and partly to other 

 unknown causes. (Harris /«/. Ins. p. 240, and Rep. Pomolog. Sue. 

 p. 4 ; Fitch iV. Y. Rep. II. p. 03.) I am myself unacquainted with 

 the phenomena of '• the curl," as the disease does not appear to prevail 

 in the Valley of the Mississippi ; but Harris describes it as " irregular 

 and crisp tumors, often of a reddish color and of a spongy texture, formed 

 of thickened and succulent cellular tissue, and presenting some analogy 

 to the warts [Black-knot] of the Plum-tree." {Rep. Pom. Soc p. 4.) 

 May it not be possible that it is a polythalamous gall like S. seiiic/ma 

 n. sp., and like that gall the work of a Cecidomyia? It presents some 

 rather striking analogies with certain galls known to be Cecidomyidous 

 \st. As in q. pilulee Walsh, the tumors are red. 'Ind. As in that gall 

 and in S. verruca, S. semen and iS^. senigma, the great majority of the 

 tumors, when opened, even at a late period of the year, are solid and 



