282 THE WOODLANDS. 



leaves are turned over in spring, these galls will be 

 found still adhering, but more swollen than in the 

 preceding autumn. If then collected and placed in a 

 wide-mouthed bottle, it is almost certain that in a few 

 days the little imprisoned insects l will make their 

 escape from the galls, and be seen moving about in 

 the bottle. We have collected them at the end of 

 February, and in a warm room the lively little flies 

 have been seen moving about in the bottle within a 

 week. Any one who finds the male insect will do good 

 service, for the males of these flies are by no means 

 satisfactorily known, and some are not known at all. 



BUTTON GALLS are less in diameter than the 

 Spangles, with the margin thickened so as to form a 

 kind of shallow cup ; the surface is silky, with close- 

 pressed fibrils, and it is attached to the leaf by the 

 centre, in the same manner as the spangles. It is 

 caused and inhabited by a different insect, although 

 often found in company with the spangles. The name 

 of the insect said to produce these galls is Neurobius 

 Reaumuri. Hitherto we have not succeeded in rear- 

 ing the insect from the button galls, and we have 

 heard the same complaint from others. Probably they 

 have not yet been collected in proper condition, or 

 not been preserved with sufficient attention to the 

 maintenance of a proper amount of moisture. 



Another saucer-shaped gall has been described as 

 occurring on oak-leaves, but this we do not remember 

 to have met with. This is said to be larger than the 

 button galls, and to have been found in November. 



1 Cynips longipennis. 



