HYMENOPTERA. 103 
ovipositor is convoluted spirally in the interior of the abdo- 
men, and has its posterior extremity lodged in a groove of the 
venter. 
The Gallicole form the genus 
Cynipes, Lin. 
Geoffroy distinguishes these Insects by the improper name of Dip- 
lolepis, and calls Cynips certain Insects of the following family com- 
prised by Linnzus in his last division of the Ichneumons. 
These Insects seem to be hump-backed, having a small head anda 
thick and elevated thorax. Their abdomen is compressed, cari- 
nated or trenchant inferiorly, and truncated obliquely, or obtuse, at 
the extremity. That of the females contains an ovipositor which 
seems to consist of a single, long, and extremely slender or capillary 
thread convoluted spirally near the base or towards the origin of the 
venter, and of which the terminal portion is lodged under the anus 
between two elongated valvulz, each of which forms a semi-scab- 
bard or sheath for it. The extremity of this ovipositor is grooved, 
and has lateral teeth resembling the barbs on the head of an arrow; 
with these the Insect widens the aperture it has effected in different 
parts of plants for the purpose of receiving its eggs. The juices of 
those plants are diffused in the wounded spots and form excrescences 
or tumours called galls. The one most commonly known, or the 
gall-nut, Aleppo gall, is employed with a solution of the sulphate of 
iron to produce a black dye. The form and solidity of these protu- 
berances vary according to the nature of the parts of the plants that 
have been wounded, such as the leaves, petioles, buds, bark, roots, 
&c. Most of them are spherical; some resemble fruits, such as the 
galles en pomme, galles en groseilles, galles en pepin, galles en néfie, 
&c. Others are fibrous or hairy, like that called the bedeguar, 
mousse chevelue, &c., which is observed on the wild Rose-trees. 
Some of them resemble artichokes, others mushrooms, &c., &c. 
The eggs enclosed in these excrescences increase in size and con- 
sistence, and finally produce larve destitute of feet, but frequently 
provided with mammillz in place of them. Sometimes they live there 
solitarily, and sometimes in society, feeding on their internal pa- 
rietes without interfering with their development, and remaining five 
or six months in this condition. There also some undergo their 
metamorphosis, to effect which others issue forth and descend into 
the earth where they remain till their final change is completed. 
The round holes observed on the exteriur of the gall intimates the 
