GLASGOW SOCIETY OF FIELD NATURALISTS. 45 



and patience, while the latter will see how a tiny insect, by a 

 punctur-e, can give origin to forms so strange and anomalous that 

 he will hesitate to refer them to any of the plant oi-gans. Yet it 

 is probable that, after all, these objects, which to our eyes may 

 seem so unnatural, are simply monstrous or aborted developments 

 of the ordinary organs. The long, white fibres of the cotton gall 

 of the oak, for instance, is no doubt a monsti-ous development of 

 the pubescence of the leaf. The entire absence of males among 

 the larger species, and in America the phenomenon of Dimorphism, 

 will give the philosophic student of biology food for speculation. 



As many naturalists are prevented from working at little 

 studied branches of Entomology, like the Cynipidce, from want of 

 instructions about the proper method of collecting, setting, books, 

 etc., it may be useful to give a few hints about these matters. 

 But before doing so it may be as well to state that all the Cynipidce 

 are not gall-makers. Speaking generally, the family is divided 

 into three divisions, each section having different habits. The 

 first section consists of the true gall-makers; the second of 

 inquilines, species closely allied to the gall-makers, and which 

 deposit their eggs, cuckoo fashion, in the galls while they are soft, 

 and, by monopolising the food and space, destroy the young of the 

 maker. The third division is composed of true parasites, which do 

 good work in destroying the plant lice, and, as if it were to counter- 

 balance this useful service, other species are parasitic upon the 

 enemies of the plant lice — the larvse of the Syrphidoe. Of this 

 section I may mention that I have taken at Kenmuir Bank, in 

 May, Allotria halter ata, Thorns, a minute species with abbreviated 

 wings. Some of the first branch are, however, inquilines — e. g., 

 Neuroterus pm^asiticus ; and the genus Aulax forms a transition 

 between the two groups. 



As regards breeding : this is in most cases easy enough, provided 

 the galls are not plucked too soon, for the larvse feed not on solid 

 matter, but on the juices that the gall contains when it is young ; 

 and when pulled in this condition, it is liable to dry up before 

 the creature inside has had time to become full fed. They are 

 most conveniently kept in glass bottles, tightly corked ; but 

 care must be taken with the spring galls (those of Sp. baccarum, 

 catkin galls, etc.), that they do not become mouldy. The peculiar 

 development of the galls of Neuroterus requires that they should 

 be always kept moist. If we examine, for example, the " oak 



