ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES FOE THE YEAR 1869, 377 



The woody Gall of the Oak, and its Insect. — The subject of 

 galls is a very curious ■end interesting one. All plants are more 

 or less subject to tbem, and none more so than the oak, which 

 has them in great variety. The one sent is so regular in shape, 

 and so hard in texture, that few would think it the work of 

 an insect. It is always found at the end of the twigs, and in 

 clusters, never exceeding six in number. Without doubt these 

 galls are formed by the parent insect depositing its eggs, and 

 probably an irritating fluid in the bark. The larva feeds in the 

 centre of the spongy mass of the gall, and changes to pupa and 

 imago within, afterwards issuing by a small hole which it gnaws 

 in the side of its prison. I opened some of these galls on the 

 23rd of October, finding full fed larva, pupa, and perfect insect 

 fully developed : indeed, some of the latter came out of their 

 own accord a few days later when the galls were lying on my 

 table. 



The insect is, I think, Cynips quercus-terminalis, Fab., female; 

 and connected therewith is one of the most startling problems 

 of Entomology : there are ajyparently no males : over and over 

 again have the galls been collected, and carefully kept, until all 

 the inmates have come out, but invariably with one result — the 

 whole (sometimes many hundreds) being females. 



I have mounted, on a slab for the Museum collection, a bundle 

 of six galls, and one split to show the cavity made by the larva, 

 with two of the perfect insects. 



Blatta Madera. — This cosmopolitan insect is so frequently 

 imported by foreign-going ships, that an instance, which was 

 recently brought to my notice, is only worth noting, as showing 

 how easily such pests are spread over the world. A lady, on 

 reaching home from the East Indies, sent her cabin sofa to a 

 tradesman in South Shields for repairs, and he was considerably 

 astonished, on ripping up the lining, to find it swarming with 

 fine large lively cockroaches, which immediately fled in all di- 

 rections over his premises. Some of them Avere caught and 

 brought to me alive, and these I have mounted for the Mu- 

 seum collection. 



