34 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON CECIDOMYIDM DURING 1886. 

 By Peter Inchbald, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



The following notes are upon my year's work among the 

 Gall-gnats during 1886 : — 



My first Cecid of the year appeared on the morning of April 

 6th, and was Ceciclomyia hetulcs, from the seed-catkins of the birch. 

 They appeared throughout the month of April, fully 100 emerging 

 in my glass-topped box on the 18th of the month. There was a 

 large preponderance of females beyond what I have noticed in 

 other species that I have yet bred. Franz Loew was the first, I 

 believe, to trace the home of the larva to the seed-capsules of the 

 birch, which it modifies to its special needs and requirements. 

 Sometimes two pupse lie side by side in the capsule. 



Cecidomyia cardaminis, Winnertz, was the next to put in an 

 appearance on April 19th. I breed it from Cardamine aniara 

 far more abundantl}^ than from C. pratensis. I have never bred 

 it from C. hirsuta. Its larval home is readily noticed, the flower- 

 heads being made to assume monstrous proportions. I would 

 observe that the colouring of the heads of C. amara are even 

 deeper purple than those of C. pratensis. All the parts of the 

 flower are utilised by the larva in its economy. 



Throughout the month of May the " Knot-grass Cecids," C. 

 persicarice, Linn., hatched abundantly from their snow-white 

 cocoons. I bred it from Polygonum amphibium, though on the 

 Continent it also affects P. persicaria. Though the two grow 

 together, — often side by side, — I have never seen the larvge on 

 P. persicaria. I bred the gall-gnats very abundantly, both male 

 and female. Sometimes the bell-glass was covered with them. 

 Winnertz tells us that he reared only the females ; with me the 

 numbers were nearly equal. The antennse of the males are 

 stalked, consisting of fourteen joints; in the females the joints 

 are beaded, but not stalked. 



Cecidomyia muricatce, n. sp. (mihi), began to issue from the 

 seed-spikes of Carex muricata on May 16th, at first sparingly, 

 but during the month fairly abundantly. I gathered the affected 

 heads in July of last year. The larvae fed within the utricle on 

 the embryo nucule, pupating in the spikelet. I bred both the 



