182 
XIL 
JUNE 1st. 
Musquitoes. — Gallflies. — Moths. — Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. — Black 
Swallowtail. — Clouded Sulpliur. — Black Skipper. — Other Insects. — 
Elder. — Moose wood. — Wild Strawberry. — Beech — its bark — foliage 
roots — wood. — Leafing of Forest Trees. — Providence of God. — Tor- 
toise — its manners — eggs. — Mushroom. 
Charles. — I begin to feel the truth of your former ob- 
servations respecting the virulence of the musquitoes : last 
night they v^ere very numerous, and I was shockingly bitten 
by them. 
Father. — Yes, they have begun to be troublesome;, and 
we may now look for their nightly attacks, for three months 
at least, but not without frequent intermissions, or at least 
mitigations of their violence. We must bear it as we may. 
C. — I yesterday picked up, lying on the ground, an irre- 
gular-oval, spongy gall, resembling a brown tuberous root, 
studded here and there with prickles : it contained very many 
regular cells, and pupae of Gallflies f Cynips J, I observed 
one little hole, which I enlarged, and took from it a little 
gallfly perfected, the first I had ever seen. 
jP. — The gallflies are generally small insects, but very 
curious in their economy : their power of so altering the 
course of nature, as to produce on plants apparent fruits and 
flowers, totally different from their ordinary productions, 
merely by means of an invisible puncture, is one that com- 
pletely bafHes all our researches, and shows us that, with all 
