16 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



gall, and contains the maggot. • This gall appears at the same 

 time as the preceding, vet the maggot passes the winter in 

 the gall, and leaves it as a fly in April: it leaves the annular 

 swelling on the upper side of the leaf in such a manner that 

 half or more of the white pupa-case is left protruding from 

 the ring. Besides these two cecidomyideous galls I have 

 found several rarer ones on the leaves of the Turkey oak, 

 which are similar in appearance, and probably are also 

 produced by gall-gnats ; but 1 have not as yet obtained the 

 gall-maker. — G. L. Mayr. 



Two other species of Cecidomyid(B are known to make 

 galls on Quei'ciis cerris. They are both inhabitants of 

 Austria, but the imagos are undescribed. The gall of 

 Cec. ? suhuUfex, Mayr, is mentioned by Giraud (V. z. b. G., 

 1861), Frauenfeld (1870), Mayr (1874)', and F. Low (1874). 

 That of Cec.f galeata, Ffld., only by Frauenfeld (V. z. b. G., 

 1861). All four species, being confined to the Turkey oak, 

 are not likely to occur in Britain. At the 4th October, 1876, 

 meeting of the Vienna Society, Dr. Franz Low read a paper 

 on gall-gnats, in which he described Cecidomyia homocera, 

 n. sp., from leaf-galls of Quercus cerris. This paper is not 

 yet printed, so I do not know whether it refers to one of the 

 above mentioned or is a fifth species. Remarks on the 

 parasitism, which is curious, may be deferred, as I hope soon 

 to obtain fresh specimens of the galls. Dr. Mayr has obtained 

 two species of Cynipidce and two species of Torymidce from 

 them, — E. A. Fitch. 



NOTES ON NEW AND RARE HYMENOPTERA, 

 CAPTURED DURING THE YEAR 1877. 



By Frederick Smith. 



The past season — as far as my own observation has 

 enabled me to ascertain, and from information derived from 

 others — must be pronounced to have been most unfavourable 

 for the collection of the Aculeata. According to ray expe- 

 rience of such seasons, they are those in which a iew great 

 rarities, or the appearance of particular species in very 

 unusual abundance, may be expected to occur; and the 

 past has been no exception to what is apparently a rule. 

 Some years ago I spent the month of August at Deal; during 

 the entire month scarcely a day passed without rain, and the 

 few days that were free from showers were cold and windy. 



