DESCRIPTIONS OF OAK-GALLS. 



87 



IcBviiisculus, Scheuck (iV. pezizceformis, Schl.), and N. fnmi- 

 petmis, Hart. [Spathegaster varius, Scbenck). The galls of 

 iV. leiiiicularis seem to occur on Q. sessili flora, peduuculata, 

 and pubescens (this, however, requires confirmation, as 



Fi"-. C3. — NEUKuTKiifS LENTICULAIUS. 



formerly the three above-mentioned species may have been 

 taken for one another) : they appear in ihe middle of summer 

 on the under side of the leaf, but do not grow through : the 

 gall at first consists of a flat disk, closely adhering to the 

 leaf, but only attached in the centre, and reaches a diameter of 

 six uiilliraetres; it is yellow or red, and covered with rather 

 long brown stellated hair; it becomes gradually raised in the 

 centre; the underside is nearly flat, with white spots near 

 the margin, and more scantily covered wilh hairs. The 

 galls fall in October, and pass the winter on the ground, 

 leaving only a spot on the leaf as a trace of their former 

 presence : whilst there they swell lentiform, lose many of 

 their hairs, and remain in a sappy state till the gall-makers, 

 which are developed in the centre of the gall without an 

 inner gall, appear in the first half of the month of March. 

 After the above description it need hardly be said that the 

 gall-makers can only be bred unless they, like all deciduous 

 galls, are placed on damp sand, or are not collected from 

 under the oaks till February.— G. L. Mayr. 



This is by far the most abundant of the three closely- 

 allied species of Li m^eng alien. It will be found, I believe, to 

 be almost ubiquitous in Britain, and where it does occur it is 

 everywhere gregarious (if that can be said of a gall) ; the most 



