50 
BRITISH GALLS 
Miss Ormerod observes that “the maggots bear being frozen 
hard without the slightest apparent injury, for on being 
thawed they will at once go down into soft earth and begin 
to build up their earth-cases.” 
C. sulcicollis Gyll. must be carefully distinguished from 
C. sulcicollis Paykull. The latter is not a British insect; 
there are Italian records of its larvae causing large fusiform 
swellings on stems of Deni avia pinnata Linn. 
Plate VI., Fig. 4, shows the Common Whitlow Grass with 
a spherical gall on the upper part of its root, caused by the 
presence of the larva of Ceuthorrhynchns hirtulus. Fig. 5 
gives a magnified view of the insect, and Fig. 6 the gall 
twice actual size. This beetle is not common. The gall 
sometimes occurs at the base of the stem, amongst the 
rosette of leaves. 
Three species of Ceuthorrhynchns cause galls on the Hedge 
Mustard. The catalogue should be consulted for particulars 
of these and many others. 
Large galls are sometimes caused by the larvae of Saperda 
populnea in Poplar and Willow stems in the southern 
counties. This beetle belongs to the Longicorn family 
( Cerambycidae ), which comprises insects of oblong shape, 
with long antennae, and elytra often dull from the presence 
of minute hairs, which are frequently arranged in patterns. 
Its life-history is briefly as follows: In June, or early in 
July, the female, upon finding a suitable young branch, cuts 
a shield-like mark in the bark, and deposits a single egg at 
the base of the shield (Plate VI., Fig. 7, a). This operation 
is repeated three or four times along the same branch at 
intervals of about 30 mm. It is said that the presence of 
the egg starts the hypertrophy, but it is more probable that 
no swelling begins to take place until the larva (Fig. 11) is 
hatched. The larva eats its way into the pith, making 
galleries above and below the entrance-hole, and remains 
in the larval state until the second autumn, when it pupates 
in the branch. In the following June or July the imago 
emerges from a hole in the swelling, which is usually on 
