47 ^ 
[March 
Cynipidee, subfamily Inquilinee, (Guest gall-flies.) Wings with the second 
transverse vein so straight, that the areolet is nearly opposite the middle of 
tha radial area. Radial area almost always more or less closed by a prolonga¬ 
tion of the costal vein. Sheaths of the ovipositor always projecting more or 
less beyond the “dorsal valve,” generally projecting greatly. Ovipositor in 
almost all the species often projecting from between the tips of the sheaths. 
It miglit be thought that in assuming a Cynipide to be a Gruest gall¬ 
fly, merely because it is bred from a gall known to be produced by a 
true Giall-fly, we are jumping too fast to a conclusion. May it not, it 
will be said, be a true Parasite, like the various Ohalcididge and Ichneu- 
monidae bred so often from galls, or like Flgltes and Allotria ? The 
answer is simple. Is^. It is known with certainty that one genus 
(^Sgnoplirus) is, in the full sense of the term, a mere Gruest in the gall 
of the true gall-producing Ggtiips (see p.460), and 'hid. Ichieamonldse,., 
Chalcididse.^ &c. are reared from all kinds of larvae, belonging to all the 
difl’erent Orders of Insects, but nobody ever reared a Gruest gall-fly 
except from a gall. Hence it seems a legitimate inference that they 
prey on the gall itself, and not on the gall-producing insect; for if they 
are larvivorous, why do they not devour other kinds of larvae besides 
those of Cynipidae ? It is probable from certain facts which it would 
be tedious to particularize, that in some cases they starve out the origi¬ 
nal maker of the gall, or that Nature has given to certain of them the 
instinct to destroy the original maker of the gall in its early larva 
state, as I believe to be the practice of the cockoo-bees ( Goelioxys &c.) 
towards the true pollinigerous bees, (^Megacliile &c.;) but this is a very 
difierent thing from the action of the true Parasites properly so called 
{Iclmeumonidse,.^ Ghalcididse &c.), which feed upon the living body of 
their victims, and upon that body exclusively. 
As regards the generic determination of Cynipidae, the subject is full 
of difliculties. Hartig, the original discoverer of the Natural History 
of the Gruest gall-flies, has, it appears, founded a number of imperfectly 
characterized genera, which even Baron Osten Sacken finds himself 
mostly unable to recognize. One of the chief characters employed by 
him for this purpose is said to be the number of joints in the palpi, 
which in these minute insects can scarcely be ascertained satisfactorily 
without dissection under the microscope. Practically, it would be about 
as convenient to found new genera of Cynipidae upon the number of 
convolutions in the intestinal canal. Even the number of joints in the 
