October— December 1SS5/ 



PSYCHE. 



333 



constantly become more pressing. The 

 existence of such a need is sufficiently 

 shown by tiie circumstance that single 

 parts of this codex have already been 

 worked out by illustrious men. Thus, 

 in regard to insects, Julius elder von 

 Bergenstamni and Paul Loew have 

 compiled a "Synopsis cecidom\ida- 

 rum," Wien, 1S76. (Published liy the 

 authors. From Verh. K.-k. zool.-bot. 

 ges. in Wein, 1S76, v. 26, p. 1-104.) 



Among all the animals (cecidozoa) 

 which produce cecidia, the insects form 

 decidedly by far the greater majority. 

 Almost all the orders fiu'nish at least- 

 one or another representative, and often 

 from systematically very distant fam- 

 ilies. The number of species of ceci- 

 dozoa among the lepidoptera, coleo- 

 ptera and hemiptera is small ; it is far 

 greater among the hymenoptera and 

 diptera ; among the rest of the animals, 

 gall-makers are found only among the 

 minute acarida., among the micro- 

 scopic rotatoria (living beings usually 

 subordinated to the Crustacea), and 

 finally among the neiuatoda. Among 

 the acarida it is exclusively the genus 

 Phytoptus Duj. (which has been very 

 imperfectly investigated as3-etin regard 

 to its species) which gives rise to plant- 

 galls (phytoptocecidia, the eriiica, 

 phylleriaceae. cepkaloneae of the old 

 botanists) of the most manifold config- 

 uration of shape. The plant-galls of 

 Europe, produced by Phytoptus, have 

 been worked up rather exhaustivel)-, 

 especially by their most distinguished 

 connoisseiu-, Friedrich Thomas, in 

 Ohrdruf near Gotha, who has published 

 the results of his investigations in nu- 



merous works (namely, in the Zeit- 

 schrift f. d. ges. naturvviss. . . Giebel, 

 and the Nova acta d. Kais. leop.- 

 carol.-deutschen acad. der naturfor- 

 scher) during a long series of years, 

 and by several articles by Franz Loew 

 in the Verh. K.-k. zool.-bot. ges. in 

 Wien). Of the rotatoria solely Notom- 

 niata werneckii Ehrenb. has been made 

 known as a cecidozoon in algae, species 

 of Vanckcria,* and the cecidozoa 

 among the nematoda belong to some 

 dozen species of the two genera of 

 aiiffuilhilidae, Tylcnchus Bastian and 

 Hcterodera Schmidt. Interesting ma- 

 terial regarding these two genera of 

 cecidozoa may be found compiled by 

 Kail Mueller: Xcue lielminthdcccidien 

 und deren erzeuger (in Thiel's land- 

 wirthscaftliche jahrlnicher, 1S83, 50 

 p., 4 pi., antl as a Berlin doctorate-dis- 

 sertation). 



A great part of the material with 

 which \ve have to deal was arranged ten 

 }-ears ago in J. H. Kaltenbach's "Die 

 pflanzenfeinde aus der klasse der insec- 

 ten," Stuttgart, J. Hojftnann, 1S74 ; 

 S-f-84S p. Yet this otherwise very 

 useful handbook, besides being very in- 

 complete in a cecidological regard, suf- 

 fers in the lack of any reference to 

 sources, which is however an indispen- 

 sable requisite to a critical appreciation 

 of the accumulated matei'ial. 



In spite of the large number of facts 

 already made known, the stud}' of the 

 entomocecidia and their producers still 

 continues to offer a \vide field for new 



*cf. Ehrenherg. Notommata werneckii. fMittheii. 

 der Geselis. naturf. freunde zu Berlin, July 1S36, p. 30- 



