OF EPPING FOREST. 201 



These gall-makers are usually small insignificant looking 

 insects, their colour varying as a rule from black to brown. 

 This, however, is not always the case, as in some species, such as 

 Biurhiza terminalis, the general colour is a light yellowish red, 

 while the abdomens of the Tvigonaspis crustalis gall-flies are a 

 bright red. As a rule the abdomen is glabrous and shining, but 

 in the genus Cynips it is pubescent. 



The colour in males and females scarcely differs at all. 

 They are very sluggish insects and when disturbed feign death, 

 tucking their legs and wings close to the body and falling to the 

 ground. = Many parasitic species frequent flowers, but gall- 

 makers are only known to take water. It is often difficult to 

 distinguish between the species and sometimes it is impossible 

 except from the galls. 



Geneva of the Sub-Family Cynipina, which occuv as Inquihncs in 



Oak Galls : — 



Genus Syncrgiis. (The chief characteristics and habits have already been 

 given). The third and fourth true abdominal segments are amalgamated, the 

 suture being rarely visible. The antennae of the male are 15 jointed and in 

 the female 14 joints are present : the male also has the third antennal joint 

 curved and sometimes enlarged. The parapsidal furrows are complete. 

 There are two-parallel keels on the medium segment. Claws cleft. One of 

 the chief differences between these insects and the oak gall-makers is the 

 closure of the radial cellule in the former. 



They may be separated into two divisions (i) Those ovi- 

 positing in autumnal galls, leaving them early in the spring and 

 (2) those depositing eggs in spring galls, leaving them in July. 

 The former include the following species : — Synergus nielanopus, 

 rheinhardi, tscheki, tvistis, vulgaris, incvassatus, neyvosus, pallicornis 

 and thaumacera. The latter division contains Synergus albipes, 

 Jaciates, and, according to Mayr, thaumacera, which latter he says 

 has been bred from the galls of Biorhiza renum. 



2 ■' Feigning death " is an expression commonly applied to this habit in insects and 

 other creatures, but surely it is an incorrect one. Does an insect, when it dies, fold up its 

 limbs in this way, and why should a living one feign death at all ?— the fresh morsel whether 

 alive or apparently dead would probably be equally welcomed by a Tit or Creeper in search 

 of breakfast. Is not the habit rather a very effective form of concealment (as we think Prof. 

 Poulton has somewhere hinted) enabling the insect to escape notice by its close resemblance 

 in this attitude to the soil or to some inanimate object ? Anyone who has collected by beating 

 branches of trees over an open umbrella or tray well Knows how difficult it is to see insects 

 when they are in this folded-up attitude, amid the mass of green and dried buds, leaves and 

 twigs, which are shaken down. And who could detect such an insect as the common beetle, 

 Byrrhits piltila lying in this concealment attitude on the rough and rutty soil of a footpath, or 

 many weevils wlien they fall from bushes or low plants on to the surface of a tield or bank. 

 The habit seems to be well worthy of detailed study, and should be taken up by some 

 entomologist in search of a subject of research. — Ed. 



