Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/288

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1454
Insects.

is precisely in accordance with the proceedings of Osmia bicomis. There is a remarkable peculiarity in the relative sizes of the sexes of this insect, the males are considerably larger than the females, in some instances twice the size ; this peculiarity does not occur in any other species of British bee. Time of appearance June and July.

Frederick Smith.


List of Insects inhabiting Oak-apples.

The well-known oak-apples are inhabited by a great variety of insects, which con- stitute a little world, and derive their nourishment either immediately or indirectly from those galls. The insects in the following list have emerged from a considerable number of oak-apples collected in the neighbourhood of Southgate during the sum- mer of 1846.

June, 1845.

Nitidula grisea, 1

Balaninus glandium ? 149 during this and the following months of summer

Forficula auricularia, a few in the summer, some of them were larvae

Psocus subocellatus ? a few in the summer and autumn

Atropos ——? abundant till the winter

Teras Quercus-terminalis, 495

Synergus socialis, 27. A few specimens of two or three other species of Cynipites appeared in the summer

Pteromalus Naubolus, 7 females

Pteromalus ——? 2 males. Nearly allied to the preceding species

Pteromalus semifascia, 1 female

Pteromalus ovatus, 5 males

Pteromalus domesticus, 6 or 7 females during the summer

Eupelmus urozonus, 4 females

Eulophus gallarum, Nees, 1 (E. Euedoreschus, Walker, Mon. Chal. i.)

Cecidomyia ——? 1

Cecidomyia ——? 2

Tortrix viridana, 2 or 3*

July


Physoevria ——? 2 or 3

Nitidula grisea, 1

Lalridius lardarius, 1

Corticaria transversalis, 2

Carpalimus fuliginosus, 1

Aleochara ——? 2

Orchestes Quercus, 4

Pimpla ——? 1

Pimpla ——? 1

Hemiteles areator, I


A large caterpillar, probably of a Noctua, sometimes consumes the whole interior of the oak-apples.