50 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ctiigiiia remained without solution. At length 

 wo came across several of tliese Willow-bud 

 ffiills early in October, and discovered that at 

 that period they contained many l^"'S' -i] 

 of them a single 20-footed worm 

 (Fig. 32 c, enlarged), of a green- 

 isli-white color, the head tinged 

 with dnsky and with the usual 

 dusky eye-spots. From other 

 galls the worm had already es- 

 caped to go underground ; and in 

 a few, in which the egg had ap- 

 parently failed to hatch out, the 

 whole interior was a solid mass 

 of grass-green pulp; while in all 

 the others the gall itself was a 

 mere hollow shell containing 

 more or less "frass." Manifestly, 

 therefore, from the characters 

 of the gall-inhabiting larva, it 

 would produce some kind or 

 other of Sawfly. But to what 

 species and to what genus would 

 this Sawfly belong? Here was tfTC:iXU!.'>i.$ 

 another riddle to be solved ! AVe ^. , ^,'" , 



,, „ , - , Color: That of the 



therefore placed several of the natural buU. 

 unbored galls in a breeding-vase, with some 

 moist earth at the bottom of it. Shortly af- 

 terwards the larv£B bored their way out, and 

 burrowed a few inches underground, where 

 they spun a thin whitish silken cocoon, to 

 which many particles of dirt were externally 

 attached. In tlie succeeding May there came 

 forth from under the earth of the breeding-vase 

 both sexes of the Willow-bud Sawfly (Euura 

 .s. gemma, Walsh), which proved to belong to 

 the same genus as the Willow-egg Sawfly, but 

 to differ from that species by the size being 

 considerably smaller and by the general color 

 being black instead of pale.* 



shwo, n.. iio= i.nen already stated, a frw Wil- 

 low budiralKnm bo found in Octobei nid in 

 the lollowing \vintei and spung, unboud b\ 



1 until the daj of judgment 



any larva, but of the full natural size, we may 

 draw the same conclusion as to this gall being 

 caused exclusively by the drop of poison depos- 

 ited along with the egg by the Mother Sawfly, 

 as we previously drew in the case of the Wil- 

 low-egg gall. Philosophically, this is an im- 

 portant point to be cleared up; because certain 

 authors have supposed that it is nothing but the 

 hungry gnawings of the gall-making larva 

 which in all cases originate the gall. It may 

 be so, and we ourselves believe that it is so, 

 with certain groups of gall-makers, such for 

 example as the (Jail-moths; but with these two 

 species of Sawflics, and probably with all gall- 

 making Sawtlies and Gallflies, it most certainly 

 is not so. 



There is a Guest Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia orbi- 

 talis? Walsli) which infests the Willow-bud 

 gall; but we know but little of its Natural His- 

 tory, and prol)ably the reader has already heard 

 as much as he cares for about the habits of that 

 very remark;iblc group — the Guest-insects. 



TOADS IN (URDEXS. 

 The Journal des Connaissances J/edica/es 

 states that of late years French horticulturists 

 have followed the example of the English ones, 

 and peopled their gardens with toads. These 

 reptiles are determined enemies of all kinds of 

 snails and slugs, which it is well known can, in 

 a single night, destroy vast quantities of lettuce, 

 carrots, asparagus, etc. In Paris toads are sold 

 at the rate of two francs fifty centimes a dozen. 

 The dealers in this uninviting article keep it in 

 large tubs, into which they plunge their bare 

 hands and arras, without anj' fear of the poison- 

 ous bite to which they are supposed to expose 

 themselves. Toads are also kept in vineyards 

 where they devour during the night millions of 

 insects, which escape the pursuit of nocturnal 

 birds and might otherwise commit incalculable 

 (liniigeontlK l)iuK indyoungshootsof the vine. 



St IhNTIFIC SYMBOLS. 

 W 1 1 " foi tliebencflt of our now subscri- 

 1 1 iliii Mi( vign ^ is used in natural history 

 I- in (I In Midon for the word male, the sign 

 ^ loi h ui lU iinl the sign 9 foi" neuter. Since 

 in m^nt^ tlio ^cxcn of (he same species are often 

 ciuilc di'.simil u, we shall frequently use these 

 signs witli oui illustrations, as an index to the 

 se\ of the insect figured. In astronomy the first 

 sign denotes the planet Mars, and the second 

 the planet Venus The sign ? has been known 

 foi ccntuues b\ the nanie of "crux ansata,'' or 

 tliL ( loss -w i(li the li uidle»to it, and occurs pvo- 

 liisch on old J.g\pliaii monuments. 



