3S6 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov.,'17 



The first publication on the species seen by the writer is that 

 of Li-Shih-chen (1590?). The Pen tsao by this author was 

 completed in 1578, after about twenty-five years of labor. A 

 copy said to be dated 1590 is in Berlin and only later copies 

 are available in this country. The materials referred to by 

 Li Shih-chen were usually very well known at his time and his 

 work was compiled, with additions, from some thirty-nine earl- 

 ier publications, some of them very ancient works, so it is quite 

 likely that these aphid galls were known long before his time. 

 There are very many references in Chinese literature, par- 

 ticularly medical, which are not in the bibliography given with 

 this article. These will be found recorded in the Tu Shu Chi 

 Ch'eng (1728) where a rather extended article on the species 

 is given. 



The Pen tsao mentioned previously gives a figure of the 

 galls (reproduced on Plate XXVI, Fig. i), and after describ- 

 ing the plant speaks of the nut and says : "On the leaf is an 

 insect which produces the IVu-p'ei-tzee which is collected in 

 the eighth moon." 



It is perhaps worthy of note that in the Pen tsao the Wit- 

 p'ei-tsee is included under the insects produced from eggs. The 

 insects form the first division of animals and there appear to 

 be of these insects four groups, the frog being included in the 

 last one with aquatic insects. The general life history of these 

 gall aphids seems to have been fairly known, but this can hardly 

 be said of all forms of life, for the insects are followed by a 

 group composed of dragons. 



It is indicated by Pereira (1844) that the gallnut is used 

 in making soup and as a protection against the peculiar vapors 

 of the hill country. "Gallnut" is the term by which these galls 

 are known commercially, but it does not seem from their com- 

 position that they would make good soup. In speaking of the 

 nut of the tree Li-Shih-chen says : "On the skin there is a 

 fine coating of salt" and no doubt this refers to the pollen 

 which may have been used as a soup flavoring. That the fruit 

 may have been used is quite possible, since the fruit of the 

 same tree is eaten by the Nepaulese and Lepchas. 



