242 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



appearance. When parasites develope themselves hi the 

 larva-cell we sometimes meet with a stronger and rather hard 

 condensation of the gall-substance which surrounds the cells. 

 The gall, green in summer, becomes yellowish in September, 

 and is pierced by the imago towards the end of this month. 

 Most of the parasites and inquilines, however, do not come 

 forth till the following winter or spring. It adheres so 

 firmly to the twigs that we often meet with galls two or 

 three years old still attached to the twigs. Many of these 

 galls may be mistaken for those of Cynips tinctoria, yet are 

 to be distinguished by their brownish j-ellow colour and 

 obscure reticulations on the surface, by the absence of any 

 distinctly-pronounced interior gall, and by the earlier 

 emergence of the perfect insect. The gall of Cynips 

 tinctoria occurs in the southern half of Europe, though 

 near Vienna it is no longer frequently met with ; that of 

 Cynips Kollari, however, is found as far as the German 

 Ocean. — G. L. Mayr. 



The occurrence in England of this gall, which has received 

 the name of Devonshire gall,* has been a prolific source of 

 entomological correspondence, and I may say of entomological 

 literature. Probably many early records of such occurrences 

 liave escaped entomologists, from their being published in 

 newspapers and other periodicals neither exclusively nor 

 chiefly devoted to subjects in any way connected with Natural 

 History. Entomologists who have read such sensational 

 paragraphs on the subject of oak-galls, and the loss they are 

 likely to bring on the farmers and landowners, may reason- 

 ably be excused for disregarding them, as we certainly do 

 the " unparalleled phenomenon" of multitudes of winged-ants 

 making their appearance at the end of August, or the " un- 

 precedented event" of a "mosquito" (Culex pipiens) having 

 attacked a slumbering traveller in the best bed-room of 

 the best hotel in London. It is not that we call in 

 question the existence of the galls, or of the winged-ants, 

 or of the mosquito, or any of the concomitant circum- 

 stances: these are indisputable, but, like the historical 

 gray horse one always meets on London Bridge, they are 

 facts that make no impression on our visual organs, and 



* Throughout this note I shall retain the name Lignicola for the Devon- 

 shire gall, although Dr. Mayr has given it to another species. 



