116 HYMEXOPTERA. 



unless taken in conjunction -with some gall, or other collateral 

 evidence, their identification must have been more than 

 doubtful, — to say nothing of the substitution of Sijnergi for 

 gall-makers, a mistake inevitable until the habits of the 

 former were ascertained. From such insufficient data it was 

 only possible to arrive at a small portion of the truth. This 

 Avas the nascent state of Cynipideous knowledge in this 

 country. We are now, in 37 years, so far advanced as to 

 have a much increased number of good descriptions, many 

 of which appeared in England, in the Gardener's Chronicle, 

 &c., and more on the Continent, — a considerable body of 

 detached notes on galls and the economy of their inhabit- 

 ants, — and last, not least, a generic system begun by Hartig 

 and now corrected and amplified by Forster, at least equal 

 to anything that can be found in other departments of 

 Hymenopterous science. At the ordinary rate of progress 

 it would be sanguine to expect the adoption of this system 

 in England very soon ; — but it will probably at some time 

 make its way, and we, or our posterity, shall then have the 

 Cyni'pidcB exhibited in an intelligible form, likely to attract 

 fresh workers from the ranks of entomologists. 



I am glad to see the recognition of this system commenced 

 by Mr. A. Miiller in a paper on galls in the "Annual," 1872, 

 and that he has increased the British list by some new dis- 

 coveries, as well as pointed out some errors in nomenclature. 

 I was in hopes of finding in his paper a reference to Giraud's 

 description of Cynips Kollari, which name Mr. Muller says 

 I have sunk in favour of lignicola, Hart. It is true that 

 I have always called the insect lignicola, Hart., for the 

 reason that Hartig (Germ. Zeit. iv. 403) describes a different 

 species as C. Kollarii. I have frequently heard our insect 

 {lignicola) called C, Kollari, Gir., but have not succeeded 

 in finding Giraud's description. And if I had succeeded, the 



