46 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



spaugies," in summer, we will see that they are perfectly flat and 

 dry, without a vestige of the larvas discernible inside, and in this 

 condition they remain till February or March, when the galls swell 

 up to double their previous size, and the insects pass very rapidly 

 through their transformations. (May not this be a provision of 

 nature to protect the larvse from the attacks of inquilines and 

 parasites? a supposition that seems to be justified by their com- 

 parative immunity from enemies. Out of several hundred flies 

 that I have reared from tlie spangles, not one was a parasite or 

 inquiline, and I may say also, not one a male.) With these I 

 place the galls in a bottle, tie a piece of muslin over its mouth, 

 and then stick the bottle, mouth downwards, in a flower-pot full 

 of soil, and put the whole outside. Of course different galls must 

 be kept separate. 



The dried galls I gum upon stiff card-board, and the flies must 

 also be set upon cards, and it is always as well to have a few 

 upside down. 



The student must not, however, expect to be always successful 

 in rearing the makers out of all his galls ; flies in abundance he 

 will in most cases breed, but the chances are that they will be 

 Synergi and Chalcididce ; but do not let him throw these away as 

 useless, but rather set them out, and carefully note from what 

 galls they were reared ; for although he may not care about inves- 

 tigating them himself, still they might be extremely useful to some 

 specialist, and they will be doubly valuable if the latter hint be 

 followed. 



The British galls are, as a rule, easily identified, but the insects, 

 from the unsatisfactory nature of the descriptions, are involved in 

 considerable perplexity ; and a proper monograph is much needed. 

 The inquilines cannot be identified at all from Hartig's descriptions, 

 and that author, by treating the group in the way he did, has pro- 

 bably done more harm than good. The following are the works 

 and papers that the student will find of most use : — Marshall, 

 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, vol. iv. (good descriptions of 

 most of the British insects) ; Mliller, Entomologists' Annual for 

 1872 ; Traill, " Scottish Naturalist," vols. i. and ii. Continental 

 Works, are: — Hartig, Ueber die Eamilie der Gallwespen in 

 "Germar's Zeitschiift fiir die Entomologie," vol. ii., pp. 176-209; 

 vol. iil, pp. .322-358, and iv., pp. 395-422 ; Taschenberg, "Hymen- 

 opteren Deutschlands," pp. 116-144 (an excellent and cheap work), 



