200 [September, 



ATLAX TAEAXACI (Ashm.), A CYNIPID (HTMENOPTERA) NEW TO THE 

 BEITISH FAUNA, AND NOTES ON OTHER GALL- WASPS. 



jBT EICHAED S. BAGNALL, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



Aylax taraxaci (Ashmead). 

 Gilletea taraxaci Ashmead, 1897, ' Psyche,' viii, p. 69. 

 Aulax taraxaci Kieffer, 1902, Bull. Soc. Metz, ser. 2, x, p. 95. 

 Aylax taraxaci Dalla Torre and Kieffer, 1910, Cynipidae in ' Das 

 Tierreich,' xxiv, p. 68D. 



I first found old galls in the form of swellings in the midrib (chiefly 

 basally) of dandelions in the autumn of 1916, at Washington and Pen- 

 shaw in County Durham, but it was only last month (July) that I 

 discovered fresh galls and was thus enabled to examine the occupants — 

 larvae of the Cynipid and of a Chalcid parasite, many of which have 

 since been bred out. The galls were taken on Penshaw Hill in all stages 

 (thanks to Mr. A. M. Oliver, who Avas with me a day or two after the 

 discover}^).* 



The species is a small one, length J I'l mm. and $ 1*5 mm., and is 

 clearly described in von Dalla Torre and Kieifer's volume on Cynipidae in 

 ' Das Tierreich,' pp. 680-681, where it is recorded from Minnesota, U.S.A. ; 

 and galls from France and Germany are reputed to be referable to the 

 same species. Asa matter of fact, the galls (Houard, No. 6089, Cjaiipid, 

 on p. 1043 of his Monograph) are recorded from Northern and Central 

 Europe. In 1889, Fockeu (liev. biol. Nord France, Lille, i, p. 417) 

 described a gall which is almost certainly referable to A. taraxaci, 

 though he recorded it as a Cecidomyid gall. In 1898, Thomas (Ent. 

 Nachr., BerHn, xiv, pp. 290-293) records the gall, Avhilst Lagerheim 

 (1905, Arch. Bot., Upsala, iv, p. 20) writes of it in a paper on Baltic 

 Animal Galls {JBaJtislxa Zoocecidier). 



^ ^ ^t ^ ^ ^ 



A comparison of von Dalla Torre and Kieffer's Monograph with 

 Cameron's ' Monograph of the British Phj^tophagous Hymenoptera,' 

 Vol. IV. Cynipidae, would enable us to clear vip certain matters in 

 regard to synonymy, etc. I notice the follo-\\dng in a casual glance, so 

 far as gall species other than those galling oak are concerned : — 



Aylax JatreiUei (Kieffer). 

 Aulax gJecliomae Hartig, Cameron, and others {nee Cyni])S 

 glechomae Linn.).t 



* Since this. was written, Mr. Oliver has taken the gall on the Korthumbrian coast, north of 

 Wark worth. 



t Cameron (iv, p. 47') writes : " Ohs. — The Ct/nips glechomae Linn, is not this species, as shown 

 by thi- terms ' thorace villumi.' " 



