NOTES ON CECIDOMYID^ DURING 1886. 35 



males and females in nearly equal numbers. (For a detailed 

 account see Entom. xix. 153.) 



Cecidomyia urticce, Perris (Nettle Gall-gnat), put in an appear- 

 ance this year for the first time on May 26th. The galled heads 

 were gathered Sept. 18th of the previous year. The larvae are 

 common, affecting the leaf-stalk and ribs of the leaves of the 

 nettle. When full-fed they fall to the ground, and pupate in the 

 soil, spinning a snow-white silken little web. Their colour is 

 greenish white, not red as Cecid larvae usually are. I bred both 

 sexes in fair abundance. 



Cecidomyia salicis, Schrk., issued from multilocular bosses on 

 the upper twigs of Salix cinerea on June 0th. It is many years 

 since I previously bred it, — in 1861, — according to Mr. E. A. 

 Fitch's admirable 'Synopsis' (which I would ask him to supple- 

 ment, on the very same principle). The woody excrescence 

 yielded me upwards of a score gall-gnats of both sexes. 



Cecidomyia crattegi, Winnertz. — The leafy bosses at the tips 

 of the shoots of the hawthorn of our trim-kept hedgerows yielded 

 me from June 13th quite a bevy of this gall-gnat; and no wonder, 

 as I have counted upwards of a dozen larvae in some of the larger 

 bosses. 



I received on June 13th, from Sussex, the larvae of Cecidomyia 

 nigra, Winnertz, that affects the core of young pears, consuming 

 the pulp. I found them, on cutting open the baby pear, ensconced 

 in the centre, whence blackened tunnels emanated. Mr. Bloom- 

 field, of Guestling, who sent me the young pears, remarked that 

 they had selected the "Marie Louise" pear as their nurse. By 

 July 6th all had left the pears, and pupated in the soil of the 

 flower-pot below the bell-glass The larvae is yellowish white. 

 The pupa spins for itself a papery cocoon, which is exteriorly 

 enclosed in an earthen case. Some of its life-history is thus read, 

 and we must hope to read the remainder when the pear-tree puts 

 forth its bloom in the spring. Mr. Bloomfield further says : — 

 " The fly {Cecidomyia nigra) has not been reared of late years, 

 and is so incompletely described that it is not known to which 

 division of the group it belongs." We may, I trust, hope to 

 unravel a something further of its life-history. 



On July 10th I gathered the gall-like processes of Cecidomyia 

 gain, H. Loew, from the stems of Galium verum (yellow bedstraw). 

 I may remark that I have often tried to rear this species in other 



