March 2, 191 ij 



NATURE 



Then came the epoch-making discovery by Dr. Adler 

 of the existence of alternations of generation — that a 

 spring bisexual form was followed by an autumnal 

 unisexual one, the two forms having totally different 

 galls. 



The volume commences with a list of the authors 

 who have published separate works, and of the titles 

 of the journals and transactions of scientific societies 

 in which papers have appeared, the total number being 

 252, beginning with Malpighi in 1675. The titles of 

 papers in magazines and transactions are not given. 

 If they had we should have had the names of T. A. 

 Marshall, E. A. Fitch, Prof. J. W. H. Trail, and other 

 workers at British cecidology, besides the seven 

 British authors given in the catalogue. We notice 

 that while the list contains the French translation of 

 Adler's papers, no mention is made of the English 

 one by Mr. Standen. Next we have a "systematic 

 index " of the genera and species, followed by the 

 descriptions of the subfamilies, genera, and species, 

 the whole concluding with a good index of the genera 

 and species, but not of the plants, and a " Nomen- 

 clator generum et sub-generum." There are no 

 figures of entire insects, but there are some illus- 

 trating the structure in the introduction, while there 

 are 398 wood-cut illustrations of galls. 



The authors divide the family into ten subfamilies 

 and 126 genera, besides two doubtful ones; describe 

 fully 1281 species, as well as 102 subspecies; in addi- 

 tion there are 212 species which have been too briefly 

 described for recognition, and of which the original 

 descriptions are reprinted. Some changes in generic 

 nomenclature are made. AUotria, West., and Xystus, 

 Htg., its synonym, are suppressed, both being pre- 

 occupied. In place of them Dr. Kiefi'er adopts 

 Charips, a MS. name of Haliday, first used by 

 Marshall. The name of Diplolepis is revived after 

 long disuse, it replacing Dryophanta. On the other 

 hand Ashmead considers it to be the same as Diastro- 

 phus. The system of subgeneric names and trinomials 

 for the species with well-marked varieties is adopted. 

 Thus we have Eucoela and Cothonaspis, both with 

 nine subgenera, the latter being genera with Foerster 

 and Ashmead. This method, in some cases, leads to 

 a species having four names, e.g. we have Eiicoila 

 Psichacra Marshalli MarshalU for the typical form of 

 Cameron's species, and Eucoila Psichacra MarshalU 

 rufo-notata for the variety. 



An interesting fact in the biology of the parasitic 

 Cynipidae is that some species are found in ants' 

 nests. Long ago Westwood bred Charips victrix from 

 the rose aphis, and as many other species of the 

 same genus have also been bred from plant-lice, it 

 might fairly be concluded that the genus was a 

 beneficial one. There is now, however, reason to 

 believe that Charips is a hyperparasite, destroying, 

 not the aphis, but the beneficial Braconid which preys 

 on it.^ If that is so the species must be looked upon 

 as injurious. The present writer has seen Charips 

 victrix ovipositing in plant-lice killed by Aphidius, 

 which pupates in the lice, the bodies of which become 

 dried,^ inflated, and are attached to the leaf by the 

 parasites. Cothonaspis zig-zag is another injurious 

 hyperparasite, it destroying Phora aeletiae, the para- 

 NO. 2lFi.y. VOT- ^^1 



site of the injurious cutworm of the cotton. Among 

 the habitats of the Parasitica is the sea-shore, where 

 two British semiapterous species are found at high- 

 water among seaweed. 



It is curious how the Cynipidae form their galls on 

 certain plants more than on others. The oak in 

 Europe and in North America is the predominant 

 food-plant. In Europe Quercus pedunculata harbours 

 ninety-nine species, Q. pubescens seventy-nine, and 

 Q. sessiliflora ninety-six. After the oak come the 

 Rosaceae — Rosa, Rubus, Potentilla. The poppy has 

 two species in the fruit and one in the stem. It is 

 remarkable that the willows, on which there are so 

 many dipterous and saw-fly galls, have not one 

 species of Cynipidae attached to them. 



As regards the distribution. Dr. Kieffer gives some 

 curious examples of the unequal manner in which 

 some genera are distributed in Europe and North 

 America. Callirhytis has four species in Europe, in 

 America fifty-two. Rhodites has twelve Palaearctic 

 and seventeen Nearctic, while Lytorhodites is exclu- 

 sively Nearctic, as is also Amblybolyps with twenty- 

 four species. A few species are found in Europe and 

 North America, e.g. our "begeguar" and Aulax 

 latreillei on Glechoma hederacea as in Europe, while 

 Rhodites eglanteriae is recorded from the West Indies. 

 Solanum should be deleted from the list of food- 

 plants, it being now known that the galls of Tribalia 

 batatorum came from the rose and not from the 

 potato. Ashmead is no doubt correct in considering 

 Tribalia to be identical with Lytorhodites. 



There are one or two points in the work which 

 concern our British species — Aulax, Hartig, is split up 

 into two — Aulax (Kieffer retains the old, incorrect 

 spelling, Aylax) with latreillei, Kief, (glechomae of 

 Cameron's monograph), hypochoeridis, papaveris, 

 minor, scabiosae, and Fitchi; and Aulacidea with 

 hieracii and graminis. We doubt if Cynips kollari, 

 our common "marble gall" fly, is dimorphic, and 

 that Andricus circulans (a Turkey-oak species found 

 in Britain only in Kew Gardens) is its sexual form. 

 Our own experiments appear to show that it is agamic, 

 while, if A. circulans were its sexual form, it surely 

 should be equally common and as widely distributed. 



In conclusion, we have to congratulate cecidologists 

 on the appearance of this admirable and thorough 

 work, which will be as useful to the beginner as to 

 the advanced student in all parts of the world. 



P. C. 



THE CRYSTALLISATION MICROSCOPE. 

 Das Kristallisationsmikroskop und die damit gemach- 

 ten entdeckungen insbesondere die der fiiissigen 

 Kristalle. By Prof. O. Lehmann. Pp. iv+112. 

 (Braunschweig : F. Vieweg and Son, 1910.) Price 

 3 marks. 



PROF. LEHMANN is gifted with the pen of a 

 ready writer, and has in recent years poured 

 forth such a voluminous stream of papers and books 

 dealing with the subject of mobile crystals in its many 

 aspects that considerable overlapping and repetition 

 necessarily exists in them. Such criticism may be 

 levied also against the present little book, which first 



