144 BRITISH Ox\K GALLS. 



Undetermined gall on Q. Ilex. 



Position of gall. — On the cupules of Q. Ilex. 

 ? From the Isle of Wight. 



The specimens on Plate LXI, div. B, were among 

 a numl)er of galls sent to me for identification from 

 Chadwick Museum, Bolton, in 1902, and were kindly 

 presented to me by the Curator, W. W. Midgley, Esq. 



A label attached to them stated that they were from 

 the Isle of AVight, but the collector's name was not on 

 it, nor the locality in which they were found. There 

 is therefore some doubt whether they are indigenous. If 

 they did grow there, probably more specimens might 

 be found in the island now, and perhaps on the con- 

 tiguous mainland also. 



They appear to have been gathered before they were 

 mature. 



The cupule is almost normal in bulk, and it is covered 

 with scales in the usual manner, but it is much plicated. 

 The interior is thickly lined with short whitish glossy 

 hairlets. At the base of this cavity is a diminutive 

 undeveloped acorn, which appears to afford protection 

 and food for the larva, and to constitute the true gall. 

 This acorn is reddish-brown in colour, it is firmly 

 attached to the cupule, clothed with microscopic hair- 

 lets, and, it consists of three superimposed parts. The 

 lower third is like a circular cushion, about 4 mm. in 

 diameter and 1*5 mm. high, and this portion appears to 

 be the larval chamber ; upon it rests another cushion- 

 like part which is about 2 mm. high and the same in 

 diameter, projecting from the top of which are several 

 tiny black curved stigma-like filaments 1 mm. high. 



The acorn bears a very close resemblance to galls 

 ]iroduced by Gi/uips galea t a (Giraud), on twigs of Q. 

 jmbescens, on the Continent. That species, however, 

 is about three times as large, and devoid of covering. 



