CYNiriD^E. 211 



"Some gall-flies appear A'ery early in the season; Cym'ps 

 quercus-palustris for instance, emerges from its gall before the 

 end of May ; these galls are the earliest of the season ; they 

 grow ont of the buds and apj)ear full grown before the leaves 

 are developed. May not this gall-fly have a second generation, 

 and if it has, may not the gall of this second generation be 

 diflferent from the first produced, as it would be under different 

 circumstances, in a more advanced season, perhaps on leaves 

 instead of bxids, etc? 



"A remarkable fact is the extreme resemblance of some of 

 the parasitical gall-flies with the true gall-fly of the same gall. 

 Thus, C>jnips quercus-futlUs^ O. Sacken, is strikingly like Aulax ? 

 futilis, the parasite of its gall. The common gall on the black- 

 berry stems produces two gall-flies which can hardly be told 

 apart at first glance, although they belong to different genera." 

 (Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia.) 



Hartig has divided this family into tln-ee sections : First, 

 Cynips and its allies, the true gall-flies (Psenides) in which the 

 second (counting the slender pedicel as the first) segment of 

 the abdomen is longer than half its length, and the subcostal 

 area is narrow, the basal areolet (cell) being opposite the base 

 of the former. 



Cynips confluens Harris forms the oak-apple commonly met 

 with on the scrub-oak. There is a spring and summer brood. 

 These galls, sometimes two inches in diameter, are gi'cen and 

 pulpy at first, but when ripe have a hard shell Avith a spongy 

 interior, in the centre of which, lodged in a woody kei-nel, 

 which serves as a cocoon, the larva transforms, escaping 

 through a hole, which it gnaws through both the kernel and 

 shell. We have found the fl}- ready to escape in June, and Dr. 

 Harris has found it in October. Two galls are represented on 

 Plate 4, fig. 13 ; the larger of which has been tenanted, after 

 the gall-flies had escaped, by an Odynerus. Cynips gallce-tinc- 

 torke Olivier produces the galls of commerce, brought from 

 Asia Minor. 



Biorhiza (Apophyllus Hartig) is a wingless genus, and lives 

 beneath the earth in galls formed at the roots of oak trees. 

 Biorhiza nigra Fitch is black throughout, including the antennae 

 and feet, and is but .08 inch long. 



