1867.] 181 
a ClotUlla, for the words in his description " segmenta abdominis ad 
latera punctis rufis singula notata" apply well to ClotUlla but not to 
Atropos. That this insect was unknown to Linne is impossible, and 
that it is his Termes fatidicum is most probable, a lapsus calami in the 
comparative size of the latter having possibly occurred. {Vide Hagen 
in Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1866, p. 189.) 
To this insect has long been attributed the power of producing the 
ticking noise known as the " death watch." That various species of 
Anobiwn cause this sound, is proved beyond doubt ; but that a creature 
with a body so soft that the least touch annihilates it can in any way 
produce a noise sensible to human ears, seems to me impossible.* I look 
upon it as a perpetuated superstition commenced centuries ago, at a 
time when the human mind was peculiarly sensitive to impressions of 
the supernatural, and having its origin in the habitat of the creature ; 
the real producers of the sound, species of Anohium, were not seen or 
suspected, and Atropos, as being the only insect supposed to frequent the 
spots whence the sounds proceeded, was naturally accused. The ap- 
prehensions excited by what is only the love-call of a small beetle, still 
exist with the uneducated. 
A.formicaria, Hagen, a black species inhabiting the nests of Formica 
fuliginosa, occurs near Konigsberg, and is likely to be found in similar 
situations in this country. 
A. oleagina, Hagen, has occurred in Ceylon in oil-cake said to have 
been imported from England ; there is no evidence that it is a British 
insect. 
(To he continued.) 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE STUDY OF GALL-FLIES (CYNIPID/^). 
BY FEEDEEICK SMITH. 
It gives me great pleasure to see the first page of the " Entomolo- 
gist " for December occupied by a portion of a chapter on Galls. Some 
ten or twelve years ago, my friend, Mr. Haliday, informed me that 
German Entomologists had arrived at a conviction that the species of 
the genus Oynips had no male sex. This naturally excited my curiosity, 
and I became extremely anxious to investigate the subject. Galls of 
Cynips Kollari were not at that time found in the neighbourhood of 
London, but were plentiful in some parts of Devonshire ; so I immediately 
* Mr. F. Smith expressed similar doubts at a recent Meeting of tiie Entomological Society, and 
Burraeister and otiiers have avowed themselves equally sceptical on this point. 
