OBSERVATIONS. 



271 



I am acquainted at present. We 

 noticed a Haltica beetle on the 

 plant, that had quite disfigured the 

 foliage by its depredations. Cemio- 

 stoma scltella, that general lover of 

 the Pomacese, was blotching the 

 Crab-tree leaves, as it did the rare 

 Cotoneaster, at Llandudno, years 

 ago. The beautiful Calathian Vio- 

 let, (Gentiana Pneumonanthe,) so 

 common on Stockton Forest, with 

 its fine large azure-blue corolla, 

 was nearly over : I was glad, how- 

 ever, to make acquaintance with its 

 capsules. Gentiana Amarella was in 

 full flower. Nepticula luteella was 

 busy making its long contorted gal- 

 leries in Birch leaves. A fine Saw- 

 fly larva, which has since made up, 

 was feeding on Alder. It will, 

 doubtless, show itself in May, and 

 prove to be the Tenthredo lucoru7n, 

 of Linnaeus. The Ononis, common 

 to the sandy ground of Stockton 

 Forest, is 0. antiquorum, as its 

 thorny branches abundantly declare. 

 Nepticula glutinosce was mining in 

 the leaves of the Alder; but our best 

 discovery was LithocolletisStettinensis, 

 which blotches the upper side of the 

 Alder leaves. Quite a harvest of 

 this local micro-larva was gathered 

 by our entomological friend, whose 

 quick eye and long acquaintance 

 with the leaf-miners readily detected 

 mines, where inexperienced eyes 

 might have sought for them in 

 vain. To this gentleman we are 



chiefly indebted for the information 

 conveyed in these papers on the 

 micro-lepidoptera. Thus ended 

 our fourth and last field-day. — 

 Peter Inchbald, Storthes Hall, 

 December 16th, 1864. 



Cynips Aptera on the Major Oak, 

 IN Sherwood Forest. 

 In September of last year, as 

 some of the members of the " Hud- 

 dersfield Naturalists' Society " were 

 pupa-digging in Sherwood Forest, 

 they discovered some tuberous-look- 

 ing galls attached to the roots of the 

 Major Oak. These tubers, which were 

 affixed to the larger woody roots by 

 the slender fibrils, contained larvae, 

 which on examination proved to be 

 those of a Cynips. The process of 

 their formation would seem to be 

 this : — The mother-cynips pierces 

 the tender fibrils, some distance 

 above the spongioles : the sap, that 

 is drawn up for the nourishment of 

 the tree, stagnates at the place of 

 puncture, and thus nodules are form- 

 ed to serve as food and protection for 

 the progeny. The nodules were 

 usually in threes, and each contained 

 a single grub. In May of the pre- 

 sent year I opened one of the galls, 

 and found the tenant now in the pupa 

 state. The case it had formed with- 

 in the nut was of papery texture, 

 with glazed darker lining, externally 

 white, internally amber-coloured. I 

 naturally expected the insects would 



