MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1169 



interesting to ascertain just how common it is, and it suggests a possible 

 economic source for cantharidin and fly blisters in India. 



LESLIE C. COLEMAN. 

 Bangalore, 17th February 1911. 



No. XXVIIL— GALLS OF PARACOPIUM CINGALENSE, WALK.,. 

 ON CLERODENDRON PHLOMIDIS, LINN. f. 



At Agali in the Bhavani Valley, on 21st January 1911, I found a num- 

 ber of deformed flowers on a Clerodendron phlomidis bush. On opening these 

 individuals of a Lygeid Hemipteron were discovered, which turned out to 

 be Paracopium cingalense, Walk, (vide Rhynchota, Fauna of British India, 

 Vol. II, p. 128, fig. 92). 



The normal flower of C. phlomidis has a tubular carolla, with expanded 

 limb, from | to 1 inch long, extruding from a wide campanulate calyx 

 (flg. 1). In the deformed specimens the carolla fails to develop on the 

 ordinary lines, but swells into a globular gall distending the unaltered calyx. 

 The throat remains open, but is blocked by the undeveloped lobes outside 

 (fig. 2), and the rudimentary stamens within. The gall is moderately thick- 

 walled and hollow, no trace of ovary and style being present. 



From 1 to 7 live individuals were found in a single gall, all in the same 

 gall being in the same stage of development, but in the several galls all 

 stages of development were to be seen. That the insect reaches maturity 

 before emerging can hardly remain in doubt, seeing that in two cases pairs 

 were detected in copulla within a gall. 



The growth of the gall keeps pace with the development of the insects 

 within and remains green till after the latter have matured, when the 

 walls break down or crack through desiccation. In the smallest galls very 

 young wingless nymphs were found and the mature only in the large galls 

 and proportionately with the intermediate sizes and stages. 



The rudimentary stamens effectually prevent the egress of the guests 

 until the walls of the gall break down, but apparently permit the entrance 

 of visitors, for occasionally small diptera and lepidopterid larvae were 

 found within. 



When a practical exit was cut in a mature gall, the perfect insects 

 eagerly escaped into the light ; in the opposite case, the immature ones 

 sought to conceal themselves in the darker recesses and under the debris 

 of cast off integuments. 



I could detect no eggs and am unable to suggest where and how these 

 are laid. 



No " ambrosia " fungi or other source of food occurs in the lumen of the 

 galls, and it must be presumed, therefore, that the insects feed entirely on 

 juices extracted from the walls of their prison. 



