GALLS CAUSED BY GALL-WASPS 
29 
mammillated, each protuberance indicating the position of 
a larval chamber. 
Rose leaves attacked by Rhodites produce some of the 
most attractive of British galls. Three of them are shown 
in Plate III., the frontispiece. Fig. 1 is the well-known 
and universally admired gall popularly known as “ Robin’s 
Pincushion,” “ Moss Gall,” or “ Bedeguar Gall.’’ The 
curious word “ Bedeguar” is said either to be derived from 
the Persian and Arabic bddaiuar, “wind-brought,” or to be 
a compound of the Persian bad , “ wind,” and the Arabic 
ward , “rose.” When occurring on the Sweet-Briar this 
gall is sometimes spoken of as the “ Sweet-Briar Sponge.” 
It arises from the attack of a leaf bud in spring by the 
female Rhodites rosae. According to Pazlavsky, she pricks 
the bud carefully in three distinct places, causing the 
three rudimentary leaves to develop, not as normal leaves, 
but into the curious production so well known to botanists. 
The “moss” is leaf with but little parenchyma between 
the fibro-vascular bundles. The gall is usually large, but 
occasionally, through an error of judgment on the part of 
the wasp, or more probably through interruption during the 
pricking operation, an abortive gall arises, a much smaller 
structure seated on a developed leaf. This gall is at its 
best in the latter part of July and early in August. It 
occurs chiefly on small and weakly bushes. As the male 
is rare, Rhodites rosae is doubtless a parthenogenetic species. 
The galls were used medicinally in olden times, and less 
than a century ago the farmers of the Harrogate district 
used them for an infusion to cure diarrhoea in cows. Old 
Reaumur said that the smell of Bedeguar galls is attractive 
to cats. 
Fig. 4 on the same plate shows the graceful little spiny 
pea galls which arise from the presence of the larvae of 
Rhodites rosarum in the leaflets of the Dog Rose. Fig. 5 
shows a detached gall, actual size, and Fig. 6 the magnified 
insect. The male was unknown to Cameron. This gall 
appears in July, and falls to the ground at maturity. It 
