Insects. 5075 



of the gardening periodicals, — and received from him the name of Cynips Quercus- 

 tenninalis. This was stated in a letter I wrote to Mr. Stainton some monlhs ago, 

 which was read at one of your meetings, and caused a rather sharp discussion: Mr. 

 Westwood was there, but took no part in it; he no doubt considered that the name he 

 had given was the correct one, but in this he was in error, as the gall now appears to 

 be the Cynips Lignicola of Hariig: had it been new, or should a specific difference 

 between our insect and Lignicola be hereafter detected, I would suggest the name of 

 Cynips Quercus-gemmae, as the parent insect deposits its eggs in the buds themselves, 

 and the galls are produced at the expense of the buds. I do not see cause for such 

 alarm as one would be led to suppose, through reading an article in the ' Gardener's 

 Chronicle' some short time since. It is true the insect is very injurious to the young 

 trees in particular : in the two large nurseries in Exeter the young trees are sadly dis- 

 torted, and they cannot make head-way against the enemy, but once turn the galls 

 into use and they will disappear much faster than they have been produced. I before 

 stated, in the letter read by Mr. Stainton, that it is rare to see the galls above ten feet 

 from the ground, but the nearer the ground the thicker the galls, and, on the little 

 twigs lying on and just above the surface of the ground, nearly every bud has been 

 metamorphosed into a gall : as you ascend upwards they gradually diminish in num- 

 ber, until the line may be drawn at ten feet, above which only a few stragglers can be 

 found. The winter before this last the tom-tits (Parida) had found out the secret of 

 what was in these galls, for they were never at a loss for a meal : when the ground was 

 covered with snow I have seen numbers of the common blueheaded titmouse (Parus 

 cceruleus) working away at the galls, in search of the fine fat larvae of this Cynips ; 

 and this winter the titmice appear to have been even more destructive to the larva?, for 

 now in a short walk you may find hundreds, nay thousands, of galls that have been 

 picked to pieces to get at the insect within. Should these galls be turned to account 

 for the manufacture of ink, being so near the ground they could be easily gathered by 

 children, so that the cost would be very trifling. It is said, by the writer in the ' Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle,' that the galls diminish the crop of acorns: now I cannot believe 

 this, because, as I said before, it is uncommon to find them on the large trees, and it 

 is well known that it is only the large — I may call them mature — trees that produce 

 acorns, so that the injury done to them cannot be great. As regards the species of 

 this Cynips, it certainly is not the C. Quercus-folii, Linn.] though the figure of the 

 galls and the perfect insect, given by J. Kaemur in the ' Genera Insectorum, Linnaei 

 et Fabricii,' agree pretty well, the description does not agree at all with our insect. I 

 bred some of our species in 1848, the first year that I came into Devonshire ; and in 

 1849 I bred the parasite of the Cynips, which I forwarded to Mr. Smith, at the 

 British Museum : that gentleman very kindly showed them to Mr. Walker, who pro- 

 nounced them new. It is a splendid species of Callimome which I shall call 



CALLIMOME FLA VI PES. 



Description of female. Head and thorax and base of abdominal segments finely 

 rugoso-punctate; base of the antennae in front and the legs pale yellow ; tips of the 

 tarsi dusky ; the rest of the antennae blackish brown, as is also the sheath of the ovi- 

 positor; base of the wings pale yellow; wings splendidly iridescent ; head, thorax and 

 abdomen beneath of the most magnificent shining green ; the basal and two next 

 segments of the abdomen above very highly polished, and reflecting a steel-blue in 

 certain lights; mouth pale yellow ; eyes brown. Length 3 lines, of ovipositor 3 lines, 



