THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 435 
inquiry, I learned that none of the galls were seen near to or 
on the roots. It is the first time that British specimens 
of these galls have come under my notice, but I have long 
been acquainted with their occurrence in Bohemia, as 
detailed by Herr L. Kirchner in the following note, of which 
IT think it serviceable to give a literal translation :—‘‘ But the 
most diversified works I found on the Populus tremula, Z., 
of our woods, at the young shoots of four to five years’ 
growth, amongst which there are, however, individuals 
nearly twenty years old, and which, from the want of sun 
continue to vegetate in a crippled state in the thicket of old 
pine plantations. Most remarkable of all are the gall-like 
deformations, similar to tuberous growths, which are attached 
near to the root, and half imbedded in the ground, from the 
size of a hazel-nut up to that of a man’s fist: their outside is 
of a fine reddish green; their shape and look that of a rasp- 
berry (similar deformations are found on the trunk of Populus 
pyramidalis, perhaps also below, as in this case); their inte- 
rior full of small cells, nearly one hundred in number, each 
of which is of the size of a hemp- -seed, and is tenanted by ten 
to fifteen mites in the larval state (Batoneus Populi, mh). 
Only twice I was so lucky as to catch altogether five old 
females, which were just busy [laying ?]. This gall forma- 
tion, which is quite peculiar in construction, and which is 
undoubtedly the work of a mite still undescribed, I have 
subsequently found on eleven different crippled shoots, 
always only near the root, fixed to the bark, half above 
ground, and half imbedded in it.” (‘ Lotos, xili. p. 44.) 
With the description here given of the Bohemian specimens, 
my own Scotch ones quite agree in every particular,—in 
size, colour, and internal structure. JI was in particular 
struck by the rich, downy, reddish green hue of their cover- 
ing; by the loose granulate texture of the outer layer, which 
could be easily broken up by hand; and by the fibrous, 
woody, hard centre, around and within which the numerous 
cells of the mites were located. In my opinion each of these 
galls springs from a bud, transformed into a short deeply- 
imbedded foot-stalk, within which the parent mite had 
deposited her eggs. Hence, I would not lay any stress on 
the fact, so much insisted upon by Herr Kirchner, that the 
galls occur only near the roots. On a future occasion I hope 
