2984 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



from many-chambered spongy galls. In spring these galls are light colored; but 

 later on, when the insect has made its escape, become brown. The female insects 

 may be either winged or wingless, whereas the males are always provided with these 

 appendages. Upward of forty parasites have been reared from the galls of this 

 species. Yet another familiar type is the bramble gall wasp (Diastrophus rubi], 

 which in spring produces hard and often twisted swellings on bramble stems, from 

 which in due course emerge the perfect insects. In the same illustration is shown 

 the oak root gall wasp {Bioriza aptera). In this form the female is wingless, but 

 the male is unknown. The galls are formed on the rootlets of the oak trees be- 

 neath the surface of the ground. 



In the common rose gall wasp (Rhodites roses}, which produces the so-called 

 bedeguan gall on .roses, the larvae are full fed in autumn, although the perfect 

 insect does not appear till the following spring. Their beautiful, mossy, pink- 

 tinted galls furnish a home for many other insects, such as various species of 

 Synergus, but especially parasites belonging to the families Pteromalidce and 

 Braconidcz. Synergus facialis, of which a figure is given in the lower illustration 

 on p. 2982, is parasitic on the gall wasps. So too is Figites scutdlaris, shown in Fig. 

 6 of the same illustration. These are gall wasps, so far as structure is concerned; 



but as regards their habits they are in no way differ- 

 ent from ichneumons, living in the larval state in 

 the bodies of various insects. Figites scutellaris, 

 as well as most other members of the group, are 

 parasitic on the larvae of the flies ; while Ibalia 

 cultellator is parasitic in the larvae of the giant saw- 

 flies. 



Family PROCTOTRTPID^ 



The members of this obscure family are minute 

 insects, with scarcely a trace of nervures in the wings 

 in some species; and the ovipositor can be protruded 

 and withdrawn at pleasure. Though some of the 

 species are wholly unlike the Aculeata, yet others 

 approach them so nearly in general characteristics 

 that the present classification must be regarded as 

 tentative. The habits of these minute insects are im- 

 perfectly known, though some are parasitic in the 

 eggs of insects and spiders. The perfect insects, 

 small and black, with variously-shaped plumose 



upon them about to pierce and lay its wings, seem to prefer damp, dark localities, such as 

 rmuchenia n r : ged.f ggS ' '*" ^ N ' furnished beneath fallen leaves and debris of hedges. 



Here also may be placed the two species of egg wasps 



(Teleas Iceviusculus and T. terebrans], which are both shining black and very 

 minute insects, shown in the accompanying illustration, where they are buzzing 



Eggs of 



EGG WASPS. 



moth with 



Teleas 



