CYNIPID.E. 211 



"Some gall-flies appear very early in the season; Cynips 

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

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

 grow out of the buds and appear 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 

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

 circumstances, in a more advanced season, perhaps on leaves 

 instead of buds, etc? 



"A remarkable fact is the extreme resemblance of some of 

 the parasitical gall-flies with the true gall-fl}' of the same gall. 

 Thus, Cyni]}s quercus-futilis, O. Sacken, is strikingly like Aulax? 

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

 berr}' stems produces two gall-flies which can hardl}^ be told 

 apart at first glance, although the}- belong to different genera." 

 (Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia.) 



Hartig has divided this familj^ into thi-ee sections : First, 

 Cynips and its allies, the true gaU-Jlies (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 green and 

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

 interior, in the centre of which, lodged in a woody kernel, 

 which serves as a cocoon, the larva transforms, escaping 

 through a hole, which it gnaws thi'ough 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. Cymps gaUce-tinc- 

 torim Olivier produces the galls of commerce, brought from 

 Asia Minor. 



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

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

 Biorhiza nigra Fitch is black throughout, iiicluding the antennae 

 jand feet, and is but .08 inch long. 



