C YNipiD^. INSECTS. FoRMiciDiE. 179 
minute eyes, or ocelli, in addition to the three true 
ocelli on the crown of the head. This parasite was 
found feeding upon the larva of Monodontomerus 
nitidus, another parasite of the bee, which has been 
found in its cells, feeding on the pupa. The late 
Professor Audouin, who first observed the Melittobia, 
discovered it in the nests of Osmia, Anthophora, and 
Odynerus, so that there are probably several allied 
species. 
Family — CYNIPID^ (The Gall Insects). 
What has ink not done ? to say nothing of a good 
goose-quill. And how little writing would there have 
been, had cuttle-fish ink bags been the only providers 
of the atramentous fluid! The galls of commerce, 
with their strong tannin so useful in making ink and 
in many other processes, such as dyeing black, are 
caused by the punctures of a small, dry-bodied insect 
with four clear transparent wings, on a species of oak 
(Querms infectoria). This fly is the Cynips Gallce 
tincloricB, and is abundant in the East — that is, in 
Western Asia. 
The “ blue galls” are most prized by the merchant. 
They are the galls of the first gathering, collected 
before the Cynips has issued from the gall, and conse- 
quently they have no hole in them. The “ white 
galls” are inferior, containing a third less astringent 
matter than the others. The insect has escaped from 
them. The two sorts are generally mixed. 
But there are plenty of other galls, some made by 
small flies, some by beetles, but more by members of 
this family. The long, hairy excrescences on the dog 
rose are the galls of a Cynips. 
The Foma sodomitica — “ Apples of Sodom ” — -are 
galls made by an insect of this family. These “ mala 
insana” were mentioned by ancient writers as “ beau- 
tiful exceedingly” to look at, but tasting like bitter 
ashes. Walter Elliott, Esq., of Wolfelee, long in India, 
on his route home found that these galls whose exist- 
ence had begun to be doubted w’ere bond fide galls, 
two inches long and about an inch and a half in 
diameter, on the outside of a rich, glossy, purplish red 
colour ; while the inside was filled with a very bitter, 
porous, easily pulverized substance, surrounding the fly 
which produced them, and which was called Cynips 
insana by Westwood, and figured in the Trans. Ent. 
Soc., London, vol. ii. 
The family Evaniid.® contains insects generally 
with very small abdomens. They are parasitic on the 
Cockroach and other insects. Plate 7, fig. 4, shows 
the Evania appendig aster. 
Family — CHRYSIDIDJi] (The Golden Wasps). 
These species are small, but beautiful ; while some 
of the exotic species, such as Stilbum, are of consider- 
able size. They belong to the section called Tubulifera. 
The Golden wasps lay their eggs in the nests of the 
sting-possessing Hymenoptera. They have the power 
of rolling themselves up into a little ball when alarmed, 
and, in this way they escape the stings and jaws of the 
insects into whose nests they enter. 
Tribe — ACULEATA. 
So called from the females possessing a sting. 
Group— HETEROGYNA 
In these the females and males are very different 
and there are also wmrkers, abortive females. 
Family — FORMICID^ (The Ants). 
This family of insects is characterized by the habits 
of the species, which reside in more or less numerous 
societies underground, or on trees. They have a great 
number of individuals with the sexual organs and 
instincts abortive, so that they are admirably adapted 
to perform the labours of the community; these are 
named workers or neuters, and are without wings. 
The males and females are much less numerous, and 
possess wings. They do not labour. In the males the 
body is small, and the legs and antennae are long and 
slender. The females are much larger than the males, 
and have the antennae and legs shorter and thicker. 
Both males and females have ocelli and a continuous 
thorax, while in the neuters this part is contracted in 
the middle, and they are frequently without ocelli. 
Mr. Frederick Smith, who has paid so much atten- 
tion to the habits and economy of the ants of this 
country,* as well as to the history and structure of the 
Formicidae of the world, remarks that their economy, 
even in the imperfect records that we have, has furnished 
some of the most interesting and wonderful histories in 
the wide domains of zoology. “ When their habitations 
are by any means injured or destroyed, no time is lost 
in useless despair ; one spirit animates each individual ; 
simultaneously they set to work to repair their mis- 
fortune ; unceasingly they labour ; nothing damps their 
ardour or abates their industry : until, as if by a magic 
wand, their habitation again rises to its former height 
and beauty, and all trace of ruin has disappeared.” 
In the work from which we quote, detailed descrip- 
tions are “given of twenty-five species of British ants, 
with notes on their habits. With the exception of 
Formica rufa and F. congerens, all the British species 
belong to the mining ants, One, F. fuliginosa, usually 
selects decaying trunks of trees, posts, and such like 
situations, though it occasionally mines in banks or mud 
walls. Formica flav a differs in one part of its economy 
from the other British ants ; it carries down the last 
brood of larvae into the deepest recesses of their subter- 
ranean dwelling, where they pass the winter in a state 
of torpidity. These larvae are at tliis time more hairy 
than the larvae produced during the summer months. 
FORMICA RUFA is commonly called the Wood Ant, 
the Horse Ant, or the Hill Ant. They construct 
a nest composed of hits of straws, sticks, and such 
things, which they heap up into a conical mass ; hence 
one of their names. This nest, though rough enough 
outside, is admirably arranged within. The nests of 
this species are resorted to by several beetles, particu- 
* Catalogue of British Fossorial H.ymenoptera, Formicidae, 
and Vespid®, in the collection of the British Museum, 1858. 
