THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 251 
of the development of the flies, I was enabled to examine the 
whole of the latter, and to satisfy myself that all of this 
immense number were females. I also placed about sixty 
galls in as many separate boxes, and when the Cynips came 
out I carried them to different localities in the vicinity of 
London, placing them upon low oaks in woods and hedges. 
In the month of August | revisited the various localities, and 
in about eight cases out of twelve I found galls upon the very 
trees on which I had*placed the Cynips, but on none in their 
vicinity. From these galls I again obtained Cynips, and this 
brood I also placed in isolated situations; and again I found 
galls formed in about the same proportion as in the previous 
instance. In neither of these cases could there have been 
any connection with the male sex, unless that sex be of 
microscopic dimensions.” (Zool.7332.) And again:—“ Every 
observation which has been made on the genus Cynips is 
against the possibility of the existence of an active male: it 
is proved that females, which could not have been fertilized 
by copulation, deposit eggs which are fruitful.” (Zool. 7332.) 
Mr. Smith then quotes Léon Dufour, who reared Cynips by 
thousands from different species of galls without discovering 
a male; and Hartig, who obtained twenty-eight species of 
Cynips, all females, from different kinds of galls; in one 
case that of Cynips divisa, at least ten thousand females, and 
about four thousand of Cynips Fol. MHartig has also 
observed “the female Cynips issue from the gall, and imme- 
diately proceed to deposit her eggs.” To this Mr. Smith 
says :—“‘I may also add that during the past autumn I have 
bred numbers of Cynips Folii from the cherry-gall of the 
oak-leaf, all being females;” and he concludes in these 
words :—“ In fact, all observation is opposed to the existence 
of an active male in the genus. Cynips.” 
I was expecting Mr. Walker’s notes on the parasites of 
Cynips Lignicola, when the mournful intelligence reached 
me that his labours were ended, and his observations had 
ceased for ever. I have thus lost the most able of coadjutors. 
I copy two notes, which have already appeared in the 
‘Entomologist,’ because containing all the information I have 
at hand respecting the parasites of the Devonshire gall. The 
first is by Mr. Walker :— 
