188y.] 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



227 



The ^Entomologist. 



The Oak Scale. — Oak galls and their -workers form now the 

 subject of many learned papers in diverse languages. A new jDaper 

 just published by Professor Trail of Aberdeen, On Dimorphism 

 in Oah Gall-makers and in their Galls, in the new part — Vol. i. 

 Parfiv. — of the Proceedings of the Perthshire Society of Natural 

 Science, illustrates what new truths careful observers may bring out 

 of the most commonplace objects of the forest. Our plate repre- 

 sents at work a species of the Cynipidm-cynips confluens, — a fly 

 with blaclc head and thorax, and a hind body smooth and of a 

 shining pitch colour. It and the fellow-members of the genus are 

 neither the sole makers nor inhabitants of the little habitations on 

 oak leaves, though half the galls found on oaks are known to be 

 the work of these insects ; parasites and other flies take advantage 

 of their architectural industry. And in Scotland they are known 



