280 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON THE EGG AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 PHYTOPTUS. 



By K. A. Ormkrod. 



12 :i 4 5 



1. Phytoptus egg. 2. Egg showing contents. 3. Embryo Phytoptus 

 as seen in turpentine. 4. Egc; pellicle near batching, showing stiise. 

 5. Phytoptus emerging from the egg. 1, 2, 5. From birch bud-galls. 

 3, 4. From leaf-galls of Viburnum Lantana. 



The extreme minuteness of the Phytoptus maizes the 

 study of its early stages and habits one of great difficulty; 

 but by careful watching during tlie past summer I have 

 gathered a few fragments, which, though disjointed and 

 dispersed amongst various species, may still be of some 

 interest. 



The especial point in view was the egg. This, or at least 

 an egg-shaped body from which a small but fully developed 

 Phytoptus was excluded, I had previously found (Entom. x. 

 86) about the beginning of February in some numbers in the 

 Phytoptus bud-galls (witch-knots) of the birch. What T then 

 found were of a blunt oval form, produced at one end, 

 transversely striate like the perfect Phytoptus, and becoming 

 very irregular in shape before its exclusion ; and, continuing 

 fhe search, I found at the beginning of August what I take 

 to be the earlier state of this egg. In this the egg is of a 

 perfectly regular ovate form, larger at one end than the other, 

 and without striae; sometimes also slightly produced at the 

 extremities as from pressure of the contained creature, and 

 sometimes also when the time of hatching was at hand these 

 eggs were to be found, as before, with the pellicle striated, the 

 shape coujpletely irregular, and the Phytoptus in the act of 

 exclusion ; and towards the end of August eggs were still to 

 be found of a regular obtuse oval, till driven out of shape by 

 the living tenants. 



