548 
H V M ESIOPTEKA. 
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 oneratus of my Cata- 
logue. 
Galls of the size and color of grapes are found on the 
leaves of some oaks. Each one contains a grub, which 
finishes its transformations in June. The winged insect is 
my Cynips nubilipennis , or cloudy-winged Cynips, so named 
from the smoky cloud on the tips of its wings. Excepting 
in this respect, it closely x-esembles the dark-colored variety 
of Cynips onei-atus , 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 
ring-like cluster around the small twigs of the white oak, 
and her punctures arc 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 twig. These seeming 
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 then 1 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, 
antennas, 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 
"alls 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 
