THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 251 



of the development of the flies, I was enabled to examine the 

 whole of the latter, and to satisfy myself that all of this 

 immense number were females. I also placed about sixty 

 galls in as many separate boxes, and when the Cynips came 

 out I carried them to different localities in the vicinity of 

 London, placing them upon low oaks in woods and hedges. 

 In the month of August I revisited the various localities, and 

 in about eight cases out of twelve I found galls upon the very 

 trees on which I had placed the Cynips, but on none in their 

 vicinity. From these galls I again obtained Cynips, and this 

 brood I also placed in isolated situations; and again 1 found 

 galls formed in about the same proportion as in the previous 

 instance. In neither of these cases could there have been 

 any connection with the male sex, unless that sex be of 

 microscopic dimensions." (Zool.7332.) And again: — "Every 

 observation which has been made on the genus Cynips is 

 against the possibility of the existence of an active male : it 

 is proved that females, which could not have been fertilized 

 by copulation, deposit eggs which are fruitful." (Zool. 7332.) 

 Mr. Smith then quotes Leon Dufour, who reared Cynips by 

 thousands from different species of galls without discovering 

 a male; and Hartig, who obtained twenty-eight species of 

 Cynips, all females, from different kinds of galls; in one 

 case that of Cynips divisa, at least ten thousand females, and 

 about four thousand of Cynips Folii. Hartig has also 

 observed " the female Cynips issue from the gall, and imme- 

 diately proceed to deposit her eggs." To this Mr. Smith 

 says : — " I may also add that during the past autumn I have 

 bred numbers of Cynips Folii from the cherry-gall of the 

 oak-leaf, all being females;" and he concludes in these 

 words : — " In fact, all observation is opposed to the existence 

 of an active male in the genus Cynips." 



I was expecting Mr. Walker's notes on the parasites of 

 Cynips Lignicola, when the mournful intelligence reached 

 me that his labours were ended, and his observations had 

 ceased for ever. 1 have thus lost the most able of coadjutors. 



I copy two notes, which have already appeared in the 

 * Entomologist,' because containing all the information I have 

 at hand respecting the parasites of the Devonshire gall. The 

 first is by Mr. Walker : — 



