The Zoologist — June, 1871. 2651 



the jar. Under this treatment they became very ferocious, and were then 

 pitted one against the other. 



Prof. Westwood reminded the meeting that the Chinese had long been 

 known to employ Mantidae in a similar manner. 



Mr. Lewis, Mr. M'Lachlan and other Members brought before the notice 

 of the meeting, paragraphs that had been going the round of the newspapers, 

 concerning a phcenomenon observed apparently on two recent occasions at 

 Bath ; it appearing that after violent storms the ground was covered with 

 some creatures, variously described as Anuelides and Insects, which had 

 baffled the knowledge possessed by the " scientific men" of that city. 



Prof. Westwood thought the creatures were probably Branchipus stag- 

 nalis, a large fresh- water eutomostracon. 



Mr. Miiller communicated the following note on a gall found on Pteris 

 aquilina ; — 



"In March, 1869, Mr. Rothney placed in my hands a chip-box con- 

 taining a dessicated excrescence of about the size of a very large pea, and 

 some Cynipideous insects, as well as two specimens of a Callimome. Mr. 

 Rothney informed me at the same time that he had found this excrescence 

 on the common bracken [Pteris aquiUna) at Shirley. The excrescence was 

 bleached to a straw-colour, but its condition prevented my being able to 

 form a correct opinion as to the plant from which it was taken; and 

 besides I then knew of no gall on any fern. Un dissecting the gall I found 

 it composed of an accumulation of small larval cells, some of them stiU 

 containing dead specimens of the maker. The insects being in a very bad 

 condition, I did not think it worth my while to examine them, so I carded 

 them with the excrescence and put them aside. 



" Having lately had occasion to peruse Professor Schenck's work on the 

 Cynipidse of Nassau, I found (at p. 127) the following observation : — 

 'No. 69. There is in the collection of Herr von Heyden a gall on the 

 bracken (Pteris aquilina), similar to that of Diastrophus rubi ; a swelling 

 on the upper side of the stem, curved, resembling an episcopal staff, 1 — 2" 

 long, full of roundish pierced cells, pale yellowish ; a similar straight one in 

 the same collection has also been taken from that fern. A specimen 

 agi-eeing with the above curved one is in my collection, but I do not well 

 recollect on what plant I have found it. The galls on the fern belong 

 probably to Diastrophus rubi, with the gall of which they quite agree.' 

 After reading this passage, I at once examined Mr. Rothney 's Cynipidse 

 carefully, and although they are in a very bad condition I have not the 

 slightest doubt that they are Diastrophus rubi of Hai'tig and Schenck. 

 It now only remains, to complete this observation, to breed D. rubi from 

 fresh undoubted fronds of the bracken. Probably the tips of uuexpanded 

 fronds are chosen by the insect for the deposition of its eggs ; hence the 

 subsequent curved shape of the gall, as described by Professor Schenck." 



