June 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



137 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Wild Bees' Nest. — A few weeks ago, ou felliug 

 some elm trees in the neighbourliood of Warwick, 

 a wild bees' uest was discovered in a hollow part of 

 one of the elm trees, in a fork of the tree at about 

 twenty feet from the bottom. It appears that tlie 

 bees' nest was Imilt upon the debris of an old star- 

 ling's nest, which might have been in existence for 

 several years. The bees were alive when the wood- 

 men discovered the nest, from which tiiey extracted 

 nearly a bucket-full of honey of very fine quality. 

 Large portions of the comb, &c., remained in the 

 hollow place in the tree after tlie workmen had 

 destroyed the bees and collected the honey. There 

 were three separate entrances to the nest; two were 

 in a bough which branched out immediately above 

 it, and the other one below, in the trunk of the tree. 

 We wish to be informed whetlier or not this is an 

 uncommon occurrence in apiology? — IF. 



Early "W^asp.— I found this morning (March 

 17th) upon the window-sill (which has a due north 

 aspect, with the house standing upon a northern 

 slope, and quite in the country) a torpid wasp, 

 plump and bright-coloured, which, upon being placed 

 in warm water, immediately revived. What renders 

 the circumstance more extraordinary is, that the 

 weaiher for many days has been very cold, with east 

 wind, and almost total absence of sun, with slight 

 snow-fall on most days. In Mark wick's "Naturalist's 

 Calendar," April 2nd is the earliest date of appear- 

 ance, and in Gilbert White's, May 23rd.— 72. K. 



Pendent Wasps' Nest. — Late in the autumn of 

 lSG-1, a curious wasps' nest, of a round shape, and 

 hanging from a branch of a spruce-fir, was sent to 

 me by a friend who had cut it from a fir-tree in 

 Wickwood Porest, It is of a round shape, measur- 

 ing in circumference about twenty-two inches and in 

 diameter seven inches, with the mouth hanging 

 downwards. The branch from which it is hanging 

 is three-eighths of an inch in thickness, and the nest 

 is fastened to the small twigs at the end of the 

 branch. Its shape, and the paper-like substance 

 with which it is covered, give it, at a distance, tlie 

 appearance of a huge cedar-ball. The cells which 

 are built at the mouth appear to me to be larger 

 than those of the nests which are built in the ground. 

 Perhaps some of your readers may be able to say if 

 this is a nest of the common wasp {Vespa vulgaris), 

 or of some other species. — George Scarsbrook, Chip- 

 ping Norton, Oxon. 



The Male Gall-Ply {Cijnips quercns-folii). — 

 Many distinguished students of the Biptera have, it 

 is well known, examined thousands of gall-nuts of 

 the oak, finding only a single female in each gall, 

 without ever finding a single male. No male speci- 

 men of Cynips, it is believed, had ever been found, 



or been alleged to be found, until September last, 

 when Mr^ John Robertson (author of the " Anatomy 

 and Physiology of Pholas Dactylus "), after ex- 

 amining many hundreds of galls, which he found in 

 great abundance on the sessifloral oaks in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bognor, Sussex, discovered a male and 

 a female both in one gall. The crypt of the male 

 was only about a tenth of an inch from the outside 

 of the gall. In size the male crypt is scarcely a 

 third of the size of the female crypt. Of course, tlie 

 male is much smaller than the female ; the difference 

 is less, however, between the size of the sexes than 

 between the size of the crypts. There is no mis- 

 taking the male when seen, if the observer is well 

 acquainted with, the female. Ou being exposed to 

 the knife, the male fly, unlike the sluggish female, 

 was soon wide awake, alert, and nimble. He dis- 

 appeared before the means of capture could be 

 applied. This quickness, with the instinct of con- 

 cealment, and the locality of his crypt in the gall, 

 probably explain why he has never been found. 

 Split the gall, and the male is not likely to be 

 found ; but pare it, and he will be found by observers 

 with the patience and perseverance necessary to 

 examine a few hundred galls. Mr. John Robertson 

 shows the gall, with its male and female crypt, to any- 

 body who wishes to see it. During the approaching 

 autumn, this observation can be corrected or con- 

 firmed by the students of galls. 



[N.B. — "We publish the foregoing verbatim, as 

 communicated to us by Mr. John Robertson, and 

 entirely at his request and upon his responsibility. 

 We do not think the facts proven. Confessedly, the 

 male insect escaped, and a second insect was found 

 in the gall ; but if it did not remain to be examined, 

 what evidence can be produced that it was * 

 male gall-fly, or even a Cynips? — Ed, Sc. Goss.] 



B T A H Y. 



Vegetable Moksthosities.— In reference to 

 Mr. H[olland's valuable paper in the last number of 

 Science Gossip, I may state that while walking to- 

 day (May 9th) through a wood near West Wycombe, 

 Bucks, I found a single example of the wood ane- 

 mone {A?iemoHe iiemorosa) similar to the one therein 

 figured. The white petal or sepal was, however, 

 quite perfect in shape, and rather larger than is 

 usually the case. In a field near the same wood 

 I noticed, among hundreds of examples of the 

 ribwort plantain {Plautago lanceolata) a specimen 

 bearing two flower-heads : at the base of each of 

 these were clustered five or six smaller ones, which 

 gave the plant a somewhat remarkable appearance. 

 —B, 



