880 General Notes. [August, 
biology of the Cynipidz as a very amusing illustration of the in- 
sufficient and misleading nature of my theory regarding the evo- 
lution of the Aphididz. Really, as the French poet says, 
* * * Je n’avais mérité 
ni cet espéce d’honneur, ni cette indignité, * * * 
and as I consider the judgment of the entomologists of the new 
world of great value, I trust friend Riley will allow me a few 
words of explanation. 
First of all, as I was already called in the French Academy at 
Paris “Le Romancier du Phylloxera, because I had described the 
curious migrations of Phylloxera quercus from one kind of oak to 
another, I do not take the word “amusing” in its bad sense; 
on the contrary, for the first quality in a novel writer is to amuse 
his readers, and the second to be exact and truthful in his obser- 
vations. : 
Now, if I like to call winged females (?) (curious females laying 
eggs or young ones without males) /arve and the eggs giving 
birth to perfect imagos pupæ, whom do I harm? In the first lines 
of my work, explaining my theory, I take care to say that I call 
last envelope out of which issues the sexual imago. _ 
With this understanding I have described the evolution of many 
plant-lice, and established a theory which, of course, meets paro 
exceptions; but exceptions prove the rule, and one of the i 
observers of plant-lice, Dr. Kessler, of Cassel, concludes his We 
esting studies on the elm. gall-louse with the words: Es Mts 
der Bestätigung der Lichtensteinschen Theorie über die Entwic 
ords and not vi 
time in deciding whether I would have done better to have calle 
n their lectures 
Biological of 
Philosophical Societies of Washington, April, 1882) pace 
n which 
; , co 
endeavor to explain by common illustrations MY Be 
Pattie | æ in the same Way 2 
Eaj the easiest 
a p plant-lice B 
to compare them to plants. ; die Forte 
“Es ist also hier nicht anders zu schliessen als pap Aue 
pflanzung dieser Insekten bloss durch ein pflanzen a 
