Ill 
from Bombay; and in a note on the subject (Proc. Eut. Soc. Lond. 1872, 
p. ix., and ' Zoologist,' 187'2, p. 3036), I was inclined to attribute them- 
probably to the action of a mite, belonging perhaps to the genus Phjtoptus. 
" In reference to this question, my valued correspondent, Dr. Fr. 
Thomas, to whom I had communicated the said note, has since expressed 
the opinion that it will have to be tested by further observations, whether 
the gall owes its origin to a mite, and that he doubts it (Giebel's Zeitschr. 
f. d. ges. Naturwissensch. 1872, p. 475). 
" I am quite of the same o[)inion as my learned friend, that the matter 
requires further elucidation, but residents in the East can best solve the 
riddle, either by careful investigations on the spot, or by the transmission 
of materials to Europe. 
" This seems the proper place to allude to the fact that an allied, if not 
identical creature, attacks the leaves of cinnamon bushes in Ceylon. John 
Nietner has placed on record that in the neighbourhood of Colombo, where 
there exist old Dutch plantations of cinnamon bushes, 6000 to 8000 acres 
in extent, the bushes often form a single, monstrous, tangled mass, their 
leaves being curled up by numerous swellings of the size of peas or beans. 
The acorn-shaped fruits of the same plant are often similarly affected, 
swelling up until they assume the size and colour of a walnut, Nietner 
puts the question whether these excrescences might not be the work of a 
Cynips ; but as he subsequently compares them to the bulged-out leaves of 
some species of Ribes, inhabited by Aphidse, we must leave his former 
supposition out of consideration (Stettin Ent. Zeitung, 1857, p. 39). 
" In a letter which I have since received from Dr. Thomas, this gentle- 
man expresses his supposition that the Bombay excrescences may be 
produced by one of the Psyllodes. If we bear in mind what Nietner says of 
the Singalese form. Dr. Thomas's opinion undoubtedly becomes entitled to 
much consideration, and may eventually turn out to be founded in fact. 
For my own part I prefer to suspend my judgment until fresh materials 
from the East shall have enabled me to examine the excrescences in 
question, as well as their inhabitants, more in detail." 
The Rev. Mr. Eaton stated that he had had a specimen of a Trombidium 
given to him, which had been taken by Mr. Benjamin Lee Smith, in Sep- 
tember last, at Spitzbergen. 
Papers read, S^c. 
"On the Hydroptilidae, a Family of the Trichoptera," by the Rev. A. E. 
Eaton, M.A. 
" A Monographic List of the Species of Gasteracantha or Crab-Spiders, 
with descriptions of new species, &c.," by Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., 
F.Z.S., &c. 
