/O H. F. BASSETT. 



I found twenty-five or thirty specimens in a box of A. Slleri, and 

 was so fortunate as to find two of tliem tliat, though perforated, still 

 contained the gall-flies. These were both females, quite perfect, and 

 the description that follows will, no doubt, well agree with more re- 

 cent specimens. 



Gall-flies. — Head black; autennte yellowish brown, fourteen joints, tbe first 

 club-shaped, second nearly as thick as long, third equal to the two precedino; in 

 length, remaining ones gradually shorter to the last two, which appear as one, 

 except in a very favorable light; they are, together, longer than the two pre- 

 ceding. Thorax shining, punctate, parapsidal grooves reach from the collare to 

 the scutellum and converge posteriorly ; median line reaching from the collai'e to 

 the scutellum ; fine and even throughout, on the middle of the mesonotum and 

 between the median line and the parapsidal grooves two short longitudinal de- 

 pressions; scutellum moderately rugose, fovese large, shallow and widely sepa- 

 rated. Abdomen shining black, except the clear, brown edges of the segments; 

 second segment, the sides, etc., with a small, densely hairy spot, that looks like 

 frost; sheath of the ovipositor extends slightly above the dorsum. Legs reddish 

 brown, lightest at the joints, ungues simple. Wings hyaline, veins not heavy, 

 reddish brown, areolet wanting; radial area open, but the second transverse 

 turns upward a short distance along the margin of the wing as in the inquilines, 

 but stops abruptly without closing the area. Length of the body .11 inch. 



This species, in the prolongation of the sheath of the ovipositor, 

 the partial closing of the radial area and the obsolete areolet, shows 

 an approach towards characters seen in the inquilines, and that dis- 

 tinguish them from the true gall-making Cynipid?e ; still, there are 

 other characters that make it certain that this is a true gall maker. 



8. Andriciis ? IVIexicana n. sp. (galls only) 



" Mountain near Guadalajara, Mexico ; on the only large leaved 

 oak that grows there." This is all I know of this species, except 

 what I learn from the gall itself. I do not know who collected it, 

 nor to whom I am indebted for the fine specimens that came to me 

 in a chip-box a year or two ago. I suspect that my friend, B. Fick- 

 man Mann, sent them, and that they came from Dr. Palmer's col- 

 lection. 



I have no insects reared from these galls, but they are probably 

 produced by an Andricus. They are the largest woolly leaf gall 

 kno^vn to me, measuring more than an inch and a half by an inch 

 in length and breadth, and more than three-fourths of an inch in 

 thickness. The color is a rusty yellowish brown. On removing the 

 long and exceedingly thick, woolly covering from the nucleus, I 

 found several openings, through which the insects had esca})ed. The 

 nucleus is rather hard, and has, internally, a vitrified or crystalline 

 appearance. 



