THE GALL FLY. 49I 



|}lant, is however, fufficient to account for the largefl: galls 

 that have yet been obferved *. 



The cynips quercus folii f , is of a burnifhed fliining 

 brown colour ; the antennae are black; the legs and feet 

 bf a chefnut brown ; and the wings white, without mar- 

 ginal fpots. Thofe fmooth round galls that are feen under 

 the oak leaves, are the birth places of thele infefts : com- 

 monly a fingle one is found in each gall. Inftead of the 

 natural inhabitant of this gall, a larger infe£l ©f a brown 

 colour is fometimes feen to proceed ; this is the ichneu- 

 mon, who is neither the builder nor the legitimate owner 

 of the dwelling, but a parafite produced from an egg de- 

 polited there by his progenitors. 



Of all the trees with which we are acquainted, the oak 

 affords food and an habitation to the greateft number of 

 infeds. There are above fifty different fpecies that in 

 this country inhabit that plant , and probably in warmer 

 climes the numbers of its tenants is much greater. The 

 Norway ink, fo celebrated for its colour and permanency, 

 is the produce of a gall in that country, fimilar to that 

 feen upon our oaks in the month of yune. The fly which 

 produces it is perhaps the fame J. 



The gall fly of the rofe, cynips rofae, is found on the 

 gall of that flirub, and is difl:inguiflied by the black pro- 

 tuberances of the antennae ; the abdomen below is ferru- 

 gineous, the feet yellow, and the wings without fpots f . 



* Reaumur, Tom. IH. ■)■ Syft. Nat. fpec. 5. 



I Earbut, p. a34, J Fauna Swccica, No. 95?, 



3 0.^ 



