62 
BRITISH GALLS 
rozeanum (of Lister), or Entevidium splendens (of MacBride), 
but what the ‘ fly ’ is I do not know. The ways of Nature 
are most curious. Here we have a fly that probably lays 
its eggs only on this particular species of Myxomycetes, 
and it is a plant that I have noted very rarely in the woods. 
The common Lycogala epidendnim , which is a very similar 
plant, was developed in abundance by the side of this 
Entevidium, and not a specimen was affected. A mycologist 
might confuse these two plants, but the fly knew them 
apart. While it may be a well-known phenomenon to 
the entomologists who study such things, these ‘ fly ’ cases 
in Myxomycetes seemed very strange to me.” 
Lloyd’s note is of special interest to me, because some 
two or three years ago I found near Haslemere a Myxo- 
mycete with similar tubes projecting from its surface. 
From a cursory inspection of the specimen in the field I 
thought it was a Lycogala. I noted that the tubes, which 
I judged to be the cocoons of some dipterous insects, were 
all empty; each had a small circular hole at the apex. 
Unfortunately, my specimen was lost before its specific 
identity was ascertained. It is highly probable that it was 
an Entevidium and not a Lycogala, and that Entevidium 
is everywhere infested by a Dipteron which is at present 
unknown. 
The necessity for careful investigation of the contents of 
galls is emphasized by another note in the same number of 
Lloyd’s Mycological Notes. He points out that a fleshy 
growth on branches of the Southern Cypress ( Taxodium 
distichum) has been described by mycologists as Merulius 
cupvessi , Cyphella cupvessi, and Canthavellus cupvessi. Though 
Berkeley long ago said it was an insect production, Saccardo 
placed it amongst the fungi. Lloyd received living specimens 
from North Carolina, and remarks: “It did not take me long 
to decide that Berkeley was right, and that it is an insect gall, 
for the cellular structure is quite different from that we find 
in fungi, and in addition I found on the inside of each 
specimen a little orange grub. I sent specimens to Mr. 
