THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 87.] FEBRUARY, MDCCCLXXI. [Price 6d. 



Notes on Gall-makers and their Parasites. By Henry 



MONCREAFF, Esq. 



[This paper has been in my hands ever since September 

 last. I thought it best to wait until Mr. Walker had fully 

 determined the species. With his usual kindness he has now 

 done this, and his notes are incorporated in brackets. Mr. 

 Walker has written on the same subject in the January 

 number of the ' Zoologist,' S. S. 24*29 : his paper is one of 

 the most valuable contributions to Entomology that has been 

 published for many years. He enters fully into the question 

 whether these internal-feeding larvae can possibly be phyto- 

 phagous at one period and carnivorous at another ; and 

 alludes to the suggestions thrown out by American entomo- 

 logists, and also gravely considered by some of our best 

 English entomologists whether many of the Hymenoptera, 

 long supposed to be parasites on gall-makers, are not really 

 themselves the gall-makers. — E. Newman,] 



1 send for your acceptance parasites from several galls, 

 &c. 



No. 1. From stems of Festuca ovina : these parasites are 

 very abundant. I have not yet reared the gall-maker. The 

 galls on this grass are of two forms: the first very elongated 

 — from this I have reared nothing but parasites; the second 

 more rounded. In one of the latter I have detected a Cynips {}) 

 larva: it will be curious if it should turn out that the ravages 

 of the parasite cause the galls containing them to assume a 

 different shape. 



[Decatoma mellea of Walker, and Pteromalus fulviventris 

 of Walker, both in abundance ; and one specimen of Ptero- 

 malus Festucse, n. s.y were reared, by Mr. Moncreaff, from 

 stems of Festuca ovina.] 



No. 2. From imbricated galls of Triticum repens (var. /3. 

 of Hooker & Arnott). The maker of this gall will also turn 

 out to be a Cynips, I think, from what I can see of the larva. 



VOL. V. Q 



