THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 435 



inquiry, I learned that none of the galls were seen near to or 

 on the roots. It is the first time that British specimens 

 of these galls have come under my notice, but I have long 

 been acquainted with their occurrence in Bohemia, as 

 detailed by Herr L. Kirchner in the following note, of which 

 T think it serviceable to give a literal translation : — " But the 

 most diversified works I found on the Populus tremula, Z., 

 of our w^oods, at the young shoots of four to five j ears' 

 growth, amongst which there are, however, individuals 

 nearly twenty years old, and which, from the want of sun 

 continue to vegetate in a crippled state in the thicket of old 

 pine plantations. Most remarkable of all are the gall-like 

 deformations, similar to tuberous growths, which are attached 

 near to the root, and half imbedded in the ground, from the 

 size of a hazel-nut up to that of a man's fist : their outside is 

 of a fine reddish green ; their shape and look that of a rasp- 

 berry (similar deformations are found on the trunk of Populus 

 pyramidalis, perhaps also below, as in this case) ; their inte- 

 rior full of small cells, nearly one hundred in number, each 

 of which is of the size of a hemp-seed, and is tenanted by ten 

 to fifteen mites in the larval state (Batoneus Populi, miJii). 

 Only twice I w^as so lucky as to catch altogether five old 

 females, which w^ere just busy [laying?]. This gall forma- 

 tion, which is quite peculiar in construction, and which is 

 undoubtedly the work of a mite still undescribed, I have 

 subsequently found on eleven different crippled shoots, 

 always only near the root, fixed to the bark, half above 

 ground, and half imbedded in it." (' Lotos,' xiii. p. 44.) 

 With the description here given of the Bohemian specimens, 

 my own Scotch ones quite agree in every particular, — in 

 size, colour, and internal structure. I was in particular 

 struck by the rich, downy, reddish green hue of their cover- 

 ing; by the loose granulate texture of the outer layer, which 

 could be easily broken up by hand ; and by the fibrous, 

 woody, hard centre, around and within which the numerous 

 cells of the mites were located. In my opinion each of these 

 galls springs from a bud, transformed into a short deeply- 

 imbedded foot-stalk, within which the parent mite had 

 deposited her eggs. Hence, I would not lay any stress on 

 the fact, so much insisted upon by Herr Kirchner, that the 

 galls occur only near the roots. On a future occasion I hope 



