iS94. THE GALL-MAKING INSECTS OF A U ST R ALIA, iii 



plentiful, sometimes, that the trees appear at a distance to be covered 

 with crimson berries ; another simply punctures the leaf and lives in 

 the depression formed round it. This often swells out into an 

 elongate, rounded, bubble-like gall still growing with the leaf after 

 the Psylla has emerged. 



I now come to the most remarkable group of our gall insects, 

 namely, the gall-making coccids, belonging to the sub-family Brachys- 

 ceHnae. In the typical genus Bvachyscelis, both the male and female 

 coccids produce some of the most singular and fantastic growths ever 

 found upon a tree. The members of this genus, if not all the 

 Brachyscelids, confine their attentions to the Eucalypts. The male 

 galls are generally small tubular growths from one to three lines in 

 length, very slender, with a dilated rim or bell mouth at the apex ; in 

 some species they are very rare or unknown, while in others they 

 cover the leaves in thousands. In Brachyscelis immita, Schrader, the 

 male galls grow together, forming a curhng, twisted mass of slender 

 truncated tubes without an enlarged apex. I have received specimens 

 of these from country correspondents under the name of " vegetable 

 coral." 



In B. pharatrata, Schrader, and in several allied species, the male 

 galls are produced from the side of the fully-developed female gall, 

 forming a flattened mass of coalescent tubes enveloped in a smooth 

 fleshy covering, often of a brilliant red tint, ten or twenty times the 

 bulk of the female gall from which it springs. 



The larvae are pale, yellow shield-shaped little creatures, with 

 short stout antennae surmounted by long bristles of irregular length ; 

 the segments are distinct and the outer margin of the whole insect is 

 fringed with short feathery cilia, truncated at the apex, while there are 

 two long hairs or filaments at the anal tip. 



The male coccid is a delicate, pale yellow or bright pink, two- 

 winged little insect, with long plumose antennae and slender hirsute 

 legs. The abdomen is very long and slender, and wonderfully adapted 

 for reaching down to and impregnating the virgin females imprisoned 

 in their woody coverings. 



The female galls are produced upon the twigs or branches (excep- 

 tionally upon the leaves, as in B. pharatrata) ; they are round, conical, 

 cylindrical, sessile, or stalked, some quite flat on the sides, others 

 angular with apical extremities, produced into long straight or curved 

 horns often several inches in length. B. duplex, Schrader, is four- 

 sided, three inches long, an inch in diameter, with two sides prolonged 

 into leaf-like horns from six to nine inches in length, gradually taper- 

 ing to a point ; the apical orifice in this gall is key-hole shaped, and lies 

 between the bases of the horns. B. munita, Schrader, is smaller and 

 much more variable ; the apical orifice is a minute circular hole with 

 a long, slender, straight or curled horn shooting out from each of its 

 four angles. B. ovicola, Schrader, is always a symmetrical oval over an 

 inch in length, while B. pomaformis, mihi, known in Queensland as 



