THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 125.] JANUARY, MDCCCLXXIV. [Peice 6d. 



Descriptions of Oak-galls. Translated from Dr. G. L. Mayv's 

 'Die Mitteleuropaischen Eichengallen.' By Miss Anna. 

 Weise. 



[Mr. Walker has most kindly consented to add, under each 

 description, such remarks on the parasites of the gall-maker, 

 or the inquilines of the gall, as may have come under his own 

 notice; these will be accompanied by any observations that 

 may tend to illustrate the subject and render it more complete, 

 such additions being always signed with his name. I may 

 also say that in the course of this translation it may frequently 

 be convenient to intersperse, in the form of footnote or other- 

 wise, certain allusions to, or illustrations of, a theory of my 

 own, namely^ that under no circumstances are these oak-galls 

 new or independent parts or organs of the oak ; that when we 

 see an object, such as an oak-apple, which we have been 

 taught to suppose a new part or organ, additional to the 

 stems, leaves, buds, flowers, stipules, hairs, &c,, described by 

 botanists, we are not to conclude it is thus new or additional, 

 but rather to regard it as a form or phase of one of these, 

 caused by the presence or by the prior action of an insect, in 

 some manner or by some process not yet ascertained, and 

 concerning which it would be useless for an entomologist to 

 speculate, seeing it is rather the province of the chemist to 

 conduct such researches. This theory, if so it may be called 

 (perhaps hypothesis were the better word), has not been 

 generally accepted, but on the contrary, has been rigorously 

 and most ably controverted by naturalists who have given 

 great attention to the subject of oak-galls : among others, I 

 may mention -Mr. Peter Inchbald, whose arguments in the 

 'Field' newspaper cannot fail to interest every entomologist, 

 although they were subsequently disputed by Mr. Parfitt, of 

 Exeter, in the same newspaper. The discussion in this instance 

 was confined to the pseudo-halani, or false acorns, familiarly 

 VOL. VII. B 



