NORTH AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 81 



2. A. speciosuis n. sp. 



I have not been able to determine the sjiecies of oak which pro- 

 duces these galls. They were sent me by Mrs. E. H. King, of Najja 

 City, Cal. 



Globular galls growing on the underside of oak leaves (I have one 

 leaf with a gall on the uppersidej. The largest specimens are three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter and the smallest less than half that 

 size. The galls of ordinary size are covered with short, blunt horns 

 to the number of fifty or sixty, while the smallest have as few as ten 

 or twenty. The entire gall is, when fully matured, of a delicate 

 pink color, though in some of the smaller specimens this is almost 

 wanting. The walls of the galls are thick, of a shining crystalline 

 character, enclosing a scarcely separable larval cell, and showing 

 traces of pink lines beneath the surface. 



Both galls and gall-flies are among the most beautiful I have ever 

 seen. The insects that I have (fifteen in number) were all cut out 

 of the galls, but were living at the time, and continued alive for 

 several days. 



They probably live in the galls through the winter, and, as they 

 are all females, they belong to the class of agamous species. 



Gall-flies. — ifearZ dark brownish red, cheeks with a broad furrow; antennit 

 black, short, with fourteeu joints, the first and second subeqnal, the tliird one- 

 fourth hjuger than the first two taken together, the fourth equal to the first two, 

 the fifth, sixth and seventh gradually shorter, the seventh to the fourteenth very 

 short, all somewhat hairy. Thorax black, and rather sparsely covered with mi- 

 croscopic hairs; the surface presents an extremely fine crackled appearance; 

 two broad and smooth parallel lines from the coUare half way to the scutellum ; 

 parapsidal grooves deep and rapidly converging towards the scutellum and the 

 furrows over the base of the wings deep and nniting with the parapsides before the 

 latter reach the collar e ; scutellum dull black from the light hairs, and the moder- 

 ately rugose surface ; foveas large, and, like the rest of the surface, rugose. Legs 

 black and shining beneath the sparse, short, white hairs ; ungues two-toothed. 

 Abdomen small, shining, black with the sheath of the ovipositor shading from 

 dark to light amber, and a few microscopic hairs on the anterior half of the 

 second segment. Wings c\ea,r, with minute hairs ; veins clear, dark brown, almost 

 black; areolet present, but very small; cubitus slender and of uniform size 

 throughout, second transverse with an angle in the base of the short, broad and 

 open radial area, a bright red spot in the centre of the lower half of the marginal 

 and the snhmarginal cells; that in the marginal the brightest. Length: body, 

 .12 inch.; wings, .16 inch.; antennte, .10 inch. 



.3. A.? iii«li!$tiiictii»$ n. sp. 



Small, round galls attached by a broad base to the small twigs of 

 Q. alba. Smooth when fresh, but the dry galls are wrinkled and 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XVII. (11) MARCH, 1890. 



