92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



elegant combs of a minute Ichneumon, Microgaster alvearius, 

 the specific name being given in allusion to their wonderful 

 resemblance to pieces of honeycomb : each cell contains a 

 parasite, either in the state of larva, pupa, or imago. — 

 Edward Newman.'] 



On Oak-leaf Insects. — The strength of the oak is propor- 

 tioned to its trials or sufferings, and they are many and great, 

 and the last, though not the least, of them in this country is 

 the fly that deprives it of its offspring, and substitutes a 

 changeling for a babe, — for acorns may be observed to be few- 

 er none where Devon-galls are many. One of the oak's little 

 trials is the Phylloxera, of which at this season there are 

 indications beneath one oak-leaf of the former presence of 

 a thousand individuals, and a large Hemerobid larva, under 

 the same leaf, accounted for their absence, and would have 

 probably soon gleaned up the little remnant, about ten in 

 number, that was left. In addition to the three species of 

 insects before mentioned, a little Callimome at this season 

 takes part in the economy of the spangle by committing to it 

 an e^^, and seems to be very rare as compared with the 

 spangles; these are very variable as to their occurrence: 

 some leaves are quite unspangled, others have only a i^vr 

 rosy spangles ; other leaves are covered beneath with two 

 hundred or three hundred beginning-spangles, not so large 

 as the head of a very small pin. The full-grown spangles 

 increase the beauty of the foliage at this time by adding to 

 the diversity of its tints, sometimes by yellow marks ; in other 

 cases, when they are in excessive abundance, by causing the 

 leaf to curl up and to display the under side, which is wholly 

 rusty red by means of the spangles. The immense profusion 

 of these is balanced by the fall of the leaf, which is previous 

 to the swelling of the spangle and to the consequent growth 

 of the enclosed grubs, and their increase is probably promoted 

 by the destruction of birds and of other agents by which they 

 are consumed. The little oak-button, formed by Neuroterus 

 Numismatis, is sometimes thinly or thickly intermingled with 

 the spangle, and sometimes has the whole of the under surface 

 of the leaf to itself. The slug-like glutinous green grub of 

 Blennocampa stramineipes is at this season stripping off by its 

 jaws the covering of the oak-leaf with exceeding neatness, 

 and leaving the skeleton quite transparent, with all the veins 

 untouched. — Francis Walker. 



