HYMENOPTEKA. 



enlarge, but without forming a club, and consist of from thirteen to fifteen 

 joints. The palpi are very long. The ovipositor is convoluted spirally in the 

 interior of the abdomen, and has its posterior extremity lodged in a groove of 

 the venter. 



The Gallicolte form the genus 



CYNIPS, Linnaeus. 



These insects seem to be hump-backed, having a small head and a thick and 

 elevated thorax. Their abdomen is compressed, carinated, or trenchant infe- 

 riorly, and truncated obliquely, or obtuse, at the extremity. That of the 

 female contains an ovipositor, which seems to consist of a single, long, and 

 extremely slender or capillary thread convoluted spirally near the base or 

 towards the origin of the venter, and of which the terminal portion is lodged 

 under the extremity between two elongated valvuke ; each of which forms a 

 semi-scabbard or sheath for it. The extremity of this ovipositor is grooved, 

 and has lateral teeth resembling the barbs on the head of an arrow; with 

 these the insect widens the aperture it has effected in different parts of plants 

 for the purpose of receiving its eggs. The juices of those plants are diffused 

 in the wounded spots and form excrescences or tumours called galls. The one 

 most commonly known, or the gall-nut, Aleppo-gall, is employed, with a solu- 

 tion of the sulphate of iron, to produce a black dye. The form and solidity of 

 these protuberances vary according to the nature of the parts of the plants that 

 have been wounded, such as the leaves, petioles, buds, bark, roots, &c. Most 

 of them are spherical; some resemble fruits. Others are fibrous or hairy, 

 like that called the bedeguar, moussee chevelue, &c., which is observed on the 

 wild rose-trees. Some of them resemble artichokes, others mushrooms, &c. &c. 

 The eggs enclosed in these excrescences increase in size and consistence, and 

 finally produce larvae destitute of feet, but frequently provided with mammillae 

 in place of them. Sometimes they live there solitarily, and sometimes in 

 society, feeding on their internal parietes without interfering with their 

 development, and remaining five or six months in this condition. There also 

 some undergo their metamorphosis, to effect which others issue forth and 

 descend into the earth where they remain till their final change is completed. 

 The round holes observed on the exterior of the gall intimate the exit of the 

 insect. Several insects of the following family are also sometimes found in it, 

 but this has been by destroying the natural inhabitants, of whose domicile they 

 have taken possession, in the manner of the Ichneumonidse. 



Certain species are apterous. One species deposits its ova in the pollen of 

 the earliest of the wild fig-trees. The- modern Greeks, in pursuance of a 

 method transmitted to them from antiquity, pierce several of these figs, and 

 place them on their late bearing trees of the same genus ; the Cynips soon 

 leave their old dwelling and come out loaded with the fecundating dust, 

 insinuate themselves into the eye of the fruit borne by the latter, fecundate its 

 seeds, and accelerate the period of its maturity. This operation is termed 

 caprification. 



