Notice of Dr. Mate's Essay " Die Europaischen Torym- 

 iden " : by Francis Walker, Esq. 



The Torymidm, a family of the very extensive tribe of 

 minute Hymeiioptcra, are intimately associated with galls, 

 as they take a prominent part in the events which occur in 

 these habitations, each gall being a little nucleus for the 

 assemblage of living forms. There are three different 

 agencies as to galls ; 1st, the gall-bearers, among which the 

 oak has the pre-eminence ; 2nd, the gall-makers ; 3rd, the 

 gall-borers. Some of the Gynvpidm are especially the 

 means of making galls, and are thus the proper possessors 

 of their dwelling-places, but their near relations are intro- 

 duced into the galls to live at their expense, and to consume 

 their substance and to shorten their lives. But there are 

 other tribes of gall-borers, which have different ways of 

 working ; for they have not only the galls, but also the 

 gall-makers or the previous gall-borers, and thereby have a 

 more inward agency and establish another degree of life. 

 Of these borers the Torymidoe are the chief controllers of 

 the gall-makers, whose capacity of increase requires many 

 limitary ageuts. Dr. Mayr has published three essays as 

 materials for the history of galls and their inhabitants ; one 

 on Oak-galls ; another on the Syiurgi, which associate with 

 the gall-makers; and a third on the Torymidce, and the 

 species which he has included in this family and their 

 means of subsistence which he relates are here enumerated. 

 In the first of his three essays Dr. Mayr describes and 

 figures each kind of Oak-gall and gives the name of its 

 maker. His second essay is divided into two parts. In 

 the first part he gives the priority to the gall-makers, and 

 allots the second place to the Synergi ; in the second part 

 the Synergi are in the first rank and are described, and to 

 each kind is affixed the gall-maker with which it associates 

 itself The third essay is also divided into two parts, and 

 in the first part Dr. Mayr puts the gall-bearers or plants in 

 the first class, and gives a list of them, excepting the oak. 



