230 [October, 



A NEW BRITISH CECIDOMYIID GALL ON MEADOW GRASS. 

 BY HENRY S. WALLACE, F.E.S. 



Whilst hunting for galls recently with Mr. E. S. Baguall, F.L.S., 

 at Ryhope, Co. Durham, a new one on grass turned up. I was 

 searching for Vertigos and Pupidae near the roots of grass. Handling 

 a tuft of Poa nemoralis (wood meadow grass) I observed an abnoi'mal 

 featui-e near the bottom of the stem just above the root, which I 

 took to be a cocoon of some sort ; further examination, however, 

 revealed a new form of root gall. It proved to be that of Mayetiola 

 radicifica Exibs., a gall-midge (Cecidomyiid) . There also occurs on 

 Poa nemoralis another gall, the better known Mayetiola poae Bosc ; 

 this is recognised by filaments, similar to rootlets, disposed regularly 

 in a single patch on one side of the skin, and situated near a node. 

 The new species, M. radicifica Eiibs., differs in the munerous filaments 

 being disposed without regard to order, either in length or arrange- 

 ment, issuing from the leaf sheaths. I have since taken the species 

 in Northumberland at Ovingham, and at Wenthead. Cumberland. It 

 was previously known from Austria. 



Sunderland : 



August 25th, 1916. 



The Trimen Collection of South African Butterflies. — This historic collection 

 has been acquired by Mr. J. J. Joicey. It formed the basis of the late Roland 

 Trimen's classical monograph on the South African Butterflies, and is repre- 

 sentative of the whole of the Bhopalocera of extra-tropical South Africa, and 

 contains most of the types of the species described by Trimen. Lepidopterists 

 who are desirous of seeing types or other specimens contained in the collection 

 may have access to it upon application to the Curator. — George Talbot, 

 The Hill Museum, Witley, Surrey : August 'Slst, 1916. 



The food plant of Ceuthorrhynchus euphorhiae Bris.—On July 14th last I 

 found several specimens of this species beneath some isolated plants of Echium 

 vulgare, on some waste ground near the reservoir on Woodbury Common, above 

 Budleigh Salterton. C. asperifoliarum Gyll. occurred in plenty with them. It 

 is therefore almost certain that both insects attack Boraginaceae, the records of 

 C. euphorhiae on Euphorbia, Teucrium (Lahiatae), and Veronica (Scrophularia- 

 ceae) all being rather doubtful. Commander Walker, however, states (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., 1910, p. 32) that he has frequently swept it off Nepeta glechoma, 

 another Labiate. None of these plants were to be seen »ear the Echium 



