50 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



enigma remained without solution. At length 

 we came across several of these Willow-bud 

 galls early in October, and discovered that at 

 that period they contaiued many [^'S- 32] 

 of them a single 20-footed worm 

 (Fig. 32 c, enlarged), of a green- 

 ish-white color, the head tinged 

 with dusky and with the usual 

 dusky eye-spots. From other 

 galls the worm had already es- 

 caped to go underground ; and in 

 a few, in which the egg had ap- 

 parently failed to hatch out, the 

 whole interior was a solid mass 

 of grass-green pulp; while in all 

 the others the gall itself was a 

 mere hollow shell containing 

 more or less "frass." Mauifestl}', 

 therefore, from the characters 

 of the gall-inhabiting larva, it 

 would produce some kind or 

 other of Sawfly. But to what 

 species and to what genus would 

 this Sawfly belong? Here was ^KTOXO^ 

 another riddle to be solved ! We „ , -,S. , .^ 



Color : That of the 



therefore placed several of the natural bud. 

 unbored galls in a breeding-vase, with some 

 moist earth at the bottom of it. Shortly af- 

 terwards the larvae bored their way out, and 

 burrowed a few inches underground, where 

 they spun a thin whitish silken cocoon, to 

 which many particles of dirt were externally 

 attached. lu the succeeding May there came 

 forth from under the earth of the breeding-vase 

 both sexes of the Willow-bud Sawfly (Euura 

 s. gemma, Walsh), which proved to belong to 

 the same genus as the Willow-egg Sawfly, but 

 to dilfer from that species by the size being 

 considerably smaller and by the general color 

 being black instead of pale.* 



Since, as has been already stated, a few Wil- 

 low-bud galls may be found in October and in 

 the following winter and spring, unbored by 



•lu his Paper on our N. A. Sawflies (Trras. Amer.Ent. 

 Soc, I, p. 79), Mr. Norton considers Euura s. gemma, 

 Walsh, which he somewhat carelessly misprints twice over 

 as " Euuralgenuina, Walsh," to be a mere synonym of his 

 previously described Euura orbiialis . Eespectiug the natural 

 history ol this so-called species of jMr. Norton's he tells us 

 absolutely nothing, except that several specimens, received 

 by him from nobody knows whom, are said to have been 

 captured on some species or other of the twenty-two willows 

 found in the United States. In his description of orbitalis he 

 endeavors to comprehend both sexes nnder the same general 

 formula; and in this futile attempt, as almost invariably 

 happens in species where the sexes differ considerably, the 

 description Itself becomes indefluite, inaccurate and sloppy 

 Thinking as we do of the ' ' Law of Priority, ' ' we hold that 

 a name based upon a complete and accurate description 

 which distinguishes the two sexes, especially when it is ac- 

 oonipanied by the full history of the habits of the species in 

 all its stages, ought to take precedence of a name based upon 

 apreviously published sloppy description, and upon an un- 

 known number of mere cabinet specimens received from 

 Tom, Dick and Harry, the larval history of which speci- 

 mens must remain imknown until the day of judgment 



any larva, but of the full natural size, we may 

 draw the same conclusion as to this gall being 

 caused exclusively by the drop of poison depos- 

 ited along with the egg by the Mother Sawfly, 

 as we previously drew in the case of the Wil- 

 low-egg gall. Philosophically, this is an im- 

 jjortant point to be cleared up; because certain 

 authors have supposed that it is nothing but the 

 hungry gnawings of the gall-making larva 

 which in all cases originate the gall. It may 

 be so, and we ourselves believe that it is so, 

 with certain groups of gall-makers, such for 

 example as the Gall-moths; but with these two 

 species of Sawflies, and probably with all gall- 

 making Sawflies and Gallflies, it most certainly 

 is not so. 



There is a Guest Gall-guat (C'ecidomyia orbi- 

 talis? Walsh) which infests the Willow-bud 

 gall; but we know but little of its Natural His- 

 tory, and xjroljably the reader has already heard 

 as much as he cares for about the habits of that 

 veiy remarkable group — the Guest-insects. 

 ♦ ♦ ■ 



TOADS IN GARDENS. 

 The Journal des Connaissances Medicales 

 states that of late years French horticulturists 

 have followed the example of the English ones, 

 and peopled their gardens with toads. These 

 reptiles are determined enemies of all kinds of 

 snails and slugs, which it is well known can, in 

 a single night, destroy vast quantities of lettuce, 

 carrots, asparagus, etc. In Paris toads are sold 

 at the rate of two francs fifty centimes a dozen. 

 The dealers in this uninviting article keep it in 

 large tubs, into which they plunge their bare 

 hands and arms, without any fear of the poison- 

 ous bite to which they are supposed to expose 

 themselves. Toads are also kept in vineyards 

 where they devour during the night millions of 

 insects, which escape the jjursuit of nocturnal 

 birds and might otherwise commit incalculable 

 damage on the buds and young shoots of the vine. 



SCIENTIFIC SYMBOLS. 

 We repeat, for the benefit of our new subscri- 

 bers, that the sign c? is used in natural history /- 

 as an abbreviation for the word male, the sign 

 $ for female, and the sign 9 for neuter. Since 

 in insects the sexes of Ihe same species are often 

 quite dissimilar, we shall frequently use' these 

 signs with our illustrations, as an index to the 

 sex of the insect figured. In astronomy the first 

 sign denotes the planet Mars, and the second 

 the planet Venus. The sign $ has been known 

 for centuries by the name of " crux ansata,"' or 

 the cross with the handle to it, and occurs pro- 

 fusely on old Egyptian monuments. 



X, GLOVED 



