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Balaninus brassieae, Fab., an inquiline, not a gall-maker . — Mr. Rye having kindly- 

 pointed out to me, that, of this awkwardly named beetle, the monographer of the 

 genus, M. Desbrochers des Loges, says,— (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1868, p. 333) " qu'il 

 determine une galle sur les feuilles du saule (de Heyden)," I beg leave to explain, 

 that, so far as my own observations go, the female pierces with the rostrum fully 

 developed galls of a Nematus on the leaves of Salim fragilis, and deposits therein one 

 or two eggs. The young larvae feed voraciously on the substance of the gall, and, 

 working their way to the centre, in many cases stifle by their crowding presence 

 the young saw-fly larva to death ; and, of course, if, at this period, the galls are 

 examined, the inquiline is found iu full possession of the limited free space within. 

 When about half-grown, this beetle-larva has a length of about £■"', its colour is a 

 greenish-yellow, the greenish tinge being caused by its full intestines ; when full 

 grown, it is about 1-j'" long, but appears shorter by its usually curved position ; 

 it is then pale yellow, the head fuscous ; the body sprinkled with sparse, isolated, 

 brownish hairs, placed in more or less regular longitudinal rows. 



When full-fed, the larva drops to the ground, and, burying at once, forms there 

 a round, earthy cocoon, containing a coating of yellowish silk. 



The pupal state lasts about a fortnight or three weeks, when the beetle forces 

 its way out by breaking the cocoon. 



Some of the larvae, which I kept in captivity, abstained from making a co- 

 coon, instead of which they spun over a slight hollow on the surface of the ground 

 an umbrella-shaped silken roof, beneath which they passed their metamorphosis. 

 This roof, about three lines in diameter, possessed in the centre a round spot, so 

 transparent, that the outline of the pupa could be dimly made out. It served as an 

 exit door to the perfect insect, — Albert Muller, South Norwood, S.E , 4th 

 September, 1869. 



On the habits of Cecidomyia urticce, Perris. — Having just bred British specimens 

 of this midge from the well-known pale green hairy galls on the stems and leaves 

 of Urtica dioica, I offer the following observations concerning its natural history, 

 which may be considered as an unpretending supplement to the accounts published 

 by Perris, Bremi, Loew, and Winnertz. Each gall harbours but one white larva, 

 the alimentary duct of which gives its body a pale greenish hue. A full-fed larva, 

 which I saw on the 22nd August last work its way out of the still closed trans- 

 verse slit of the pouch, was about a line long, rather flattened ; the first segment 

 very slender, beak-like, the second broader, but only half as broad as the third, 

 the fourth to seventh segment each a little broader than the preceding, the eighth 

 the broadest, the ninth to twelfth each slightly diminishing in breadth, the thir- 

 teenth considerably narrower, the fourteenth (which is the last), oval, and less 

 than half as broad as the thirteenth, which gives to the latter a truncated appear- 

 ance. I could not discern any pubescence, but this may be attributed to my lens 

 not being powerful enough. This same larva, placed on earth, burrowed without 

 delay about two lines deep, and on the 4th September, I found that it had changed 

 to a sculptured pupa (described beneath) without spinning a cocoon, or even only 

 a few threads ; nor did its companion, which I left quite unmolested, spin at all. 

 This fact is at variance with Winnertz's account, that this larva turns to pupa in a 

 stout (dicht) white silken web (Linnsea, Ent., vol. viii, p. 240). Am I to suppose 



