Kinsey: Gall Wasp Genus Cynips 385 
The antennae play rapidly over the tightly wrapped buds, but 
the insect may, however, turn away and retreat down the stem 
— its negative geotropism not strong enough to prevent — until 
it reaches the fork of another branch which it will ascend. 
Why so many of the buds should prove unsatisfactory I do 
not know, but it is a fact that only a few of them ultimately 
invite oviposition. Upon reaching these few buds, which are 
inspected with the tips of the antennae, the insect immediately 
assumes the position for oviposition, standing nearly vertically 
on its hind legs while grasping a bud with its second pair of 
legs. By a teetering motion the ovipositor is forced between 
the bud scales. It takes several minutes to effect oviposition, 
the process often terminated, as I have observed it, by the in- 
sect suddenly falling off the bud to the ground, nearly or quite 
dead. Perhaps this complete exhaustion does not occur on 
warmer days. When the insects are confined either indoors 
or out-of-doors where they are prevented from ovipositing, 
they live for as many as ten days. On several occasions I 
have observed them drinking from drops of the water with 
which I have moistened the breeding jars. 
The above observations confirm and in a few points sup- 
plement Triggerson’s similar observations for variety erinacei. 
When my observations were made, some years ago, I did not 
detect the galls resulting from the oviposition, altho I placed 
numbers of the insects on two different trees near Boston, and 
on a tree at South Orange, New Jersey. Had I then realized 
that Triggerson’s work had such a close relation to the insects 
I was observing, I might have located the simple cells which 
are undoubtedly the galls of this bisexual generation in the 
buds in the spring. 
My work on Cynipidae began in the fall of 1917 when the 
first galls I collected were specimens of the present species. I 
am naming this variety for Dr. William Morton Wheeler, head 
of the Department of Entomology and Dean of the Bussey In- 
stitution of Harvard University ; who was first responsible for 
the suggestion that I investigate the biology of our American 
Cynipidae ; who supervised my studies for the first three years ; 
who was largely responsible for the grant of the Sheldon Tra- 
velling Fellowship on which I did my first extensive field work ; 
and whose own work on the ants will be a lasting inspiration 
to the coordination of biologic data thru the taxonomic method. 
25—45639 
