140 
They have, however, been amply confirmed by Meinert, Von Siebold,* 
Pagenstecher, Ganine,+ and others. In examining certain larve 
Wagner saw “new larve crawling out of them,” and these, in from 
seven to ten days, brought forth other new larve, and some of them 
went on multiplying in this way throughout the winter. These larvee 
seemed to him to have been developed from “ embryonal bodies” be- 
longing to and arising from alterations in the organism. M. Pagens- 
techer, however, differs from this view of their origin, and M. Ganine, 
of Karkow, who has closely studied the reproductive organs, describes 
them as two little sacs, placed in the eleventh segment of the body, in 
which are developed the germs or pseudo-ova. This statement is, in 
the main, confirmed by Dr. R. Leuckart,{ who affirms that this mode 
of propagation is general among the Cecidomyinz, the sub-family to 
which the Miastor belongs. 
The notion that all insects pass through three definite stages after 
their extrusion from the egg is so general that, notwithstanding several 
well-known exceptions to the contrary, there are few Entomologists 
who will not feel astonished at the statement of Sir John Lubbock, 
that Chloéon,§ one of the Ephemeride, only attains its perfect state 
after “a series of twenty moultings.” In point of fact there is no 
metamorphosis, but a gradual development—not of all the organs, 
however, with the same degree of rapidity—up to one of the later 
stages, when a kind of retrograde movement takes place. That in the 
earlier stages of these insects no trachez are present, is one of those 
facts that should teach us how uncertain it is to assume anything from 
analogy. It is an exception; the only one, itj is believed, yet 
known. 
It will be recollected that our Society has been occupied on two or 
three occasions with discussions in regard to Mr. Walsh’s conclusicns 
respecting the dimorphism of certain gall-flies. Mr. Walsh’s hypo- 
thesis rests entirely on the identity of the galls, and this has been 
* See ‘ Zeitschrift fir Zoologie, 1865, p. 106 et seg., for an account of Wagner's 
discovery, and Von Siebold’s remarks thereon. 
+ For various statements relative to the organization, &c., see Ann. des Sciences 
Nat, 1865, pp. 259—291. 
{ Wiegmann’s Archiv, &c., 1865, p. 286 e¢ seq. 
§ Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiv. p. 61 (1863). The completion of this remarkable paper , 
has only recently been read to the Linnean Society, and the latter part-of the above 
paragraph is given from memory. 
