CYNIPID^. 209 



(not being elbowed) thirteen to sixteen-jointed antennre, the 

 labial palpi being from two to four-jointed, and the maxil- 

 lary palpi from four to six-jointed. The maxillary lobes are 

 broad and membranous, while the ligula is fleshy, and either 

 rounded or square at the end. There is a complete costal cell, 

 while the subcostal cells are incomplete. The egg is of large 

 size, and increases in size as the embryo becomes more devel- 

 oped. The larva is a short, thick, fleshy, footless grub, with 

 the segments of the body rather convex. When hatched they 

 immediately attack the interior of the gall, which has already 

 formed around them. Many species transform within the gall, 

 while others enter the earth and there become pupae. 



It is well known that of many gall-flies the males have never 

 been discovered. "Hartig says that he examined at least 

 15,000 specimens of the genus Cynips, as limited by him, with- 

 out ever discovering a male. To the same purpose he collected, 

 about 28,000 galls of Gynips divisa, and reai-ed 9,000 to 10,000 

 Cynips from them ; all were females. Of C. folii, likewise, he 

 had thousands of specimens of the female sex without a single 

 male." (Osten Sacken.) Siebold supposes in such cases that 

 there is a true parthenogenesis, which accounts for the immense 

 number of females. 



Baron Osten Sacken, however, thinks that these females are 

 impregnated by males of the same species which are produced 

 from a different sort of gall, existing, however, on the same 

 species of tree. He reports in the Proceedings of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, July 1861, "an 

 observation, which, if confirmed, would solve the question of 

 the sexes of Cynipidse. From a singular, spindle-shaped gall 

 on the red oak, I reared a male Cynips, which is similar to the 

 gall-fly, Cynips confluens Harris, of the common oak-apple of 

 the red oak, known by the female sex only, and looks exactly 

 as one might suppose the male Cynips conjluens, if known, 

 ought to look. If it is proved that the Cynips of the spindle- 

 abdomen of Cynips, showinj? the relations of segments 7-8, the sternal portion of 

 the ei.2;hth segment being obsolete; sp,the single pair of abdominal spiracles; VI, 

 terminal ventral piece, from Avhich the sheaths (s s) and the ovipositor (o) take 

 their origin ; it is strongly attached at m to the tergites of the sixth and seventh 

 rings; o, ovipositor; .<!, s its sheaths; a, an appendage to v, the terminal sternite. 

 — From Walsh. 



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