548 
HYMENOPTERA. 
spot on the back. It is three twentieths of an inch long, 
and its wings expand three tenths of an inch. It is the 
Diplolepis^ or more properly Cynips onaratus of my Cata- 
losue. 
Galls of the size and color of gi’apes are found on the 
leaves of some oaks. Each one contains a giaih, which 
finishes its transformations in June. The wino-ed insect is 
my Cynips nnbilipennis^ or cloudy-winged Cpiips, so named 
from the smoky cloud on the tips of its wings. Excepting 
in this respect, it closely resembles the dark-colored variety 
of Cynips oneratus^ and very little exceeds it in size. 
One of our smallest gall-flies may be called Cynips semi- 
nator^ or the sower. She lays a great number of eggs in a 
rino:-like cluster around the small twio-s of the white oak, 
C? O' 
and her punctures are followed by the growth of a rough 
or shaggy reddish gall, as large sometimes as a walnut. 
When this is ripe, it is like brittle sponge in texture, and 
contains numerous little seed-like bodies, adhering by one 
end around the sides of the central twior. These seeminc; 
seeds have a thin and tough hull, of a yellowish-white color; 
they are egg-shaped, pointed at one end, and are nearly 
one eighth of an inch long. The gall-insects live singly, 
and undergo their transformations, within these seeds ; after 
which, in order to come out, they gnaw a small hole in the 
hull, and then easily work their way through the spongy 
ball wherein they are lodged. They are less than one tenth 
of an inch long, are almost black, or of the color of pitch, 
highly polished, especially on the abdomen, and their mouth, 
antennae, and legs are cinnamon-colored. 
It has been observed that no tree in Europe yields so 
many different kinds of galls as the oak. Those which I 
have described are not all that are found on oaks in this 
country, and they seem to be sufficiently distinct from the 
galls of European oaks. 
Round, prickly galls, of a reddish color, and rather larger 
than a pea, may often be seen on rose-bushes. Each of 
