There is another oak-gall, differing little in size and appearance from
the oak-apple, but which is very different in structure, as, instead
of giving protection and nourishment to a number of grubs, it is only
inhabited by one. This sort of gall, besides, is hard and woody on the
outside, resembling a little wooden ball of a yellowish colour, but
internally of a soft, spongy texture. The latter substance, however,
encloses a small hard gall, which is the immediate residence of the
included insect. Galls of this description are often found in clusters
of from two to seven, near the extremity of a branch, not incorporated,
however, but distinctly separate.
[Illustration: Woody Gall on a Willow branch, drawn from a specimen.]
We have obtained a fly very similar to this from a very common gall,
which is formed on the branches of the willow. Like the one-celled
galls just described, this is of a hard, ligneous structure, and forms
an irregular protuberance, sometimes at the extremity, and sometimes
on the body, of a branch. But instead of one, this has a considerable
number of cells, irregularly distributed through its substance. The
structure is somewhat spongy, but fibrous; and externally the bark is
smoother than that of the branch upon which it grows. (J. R.)
The currant-galls (as the French call them) of the oak are exactly
similar, when formed on the leaves, to those which we have first
described as produced on the leaves of the willow and other trees. But
the name of currant-gall seems still more appropriate to an excrescence
which grows on the catkins of the oak, giving them very much the
appearance of a straggling branch of currants or bird-cherries. The
galls resemble currants which have fallen from the tree before being
ripe. These galls do not seem to differ from those formed on the
leaves of the oak; and are probably the production of the same insect,
which selects the catkin in preference, by the same instinct that the
oak-apple gall-fly, as we have seen, sometimes deposits its eggs in the
bark of the oak near the root.
[Illustration: Currant Gall of the catkins of the Oak, produced by
_Cynips quercus pedunculi_?]
The gall of the oak, which forms an important dye-stuff, and is used
in making writing-ink, is also produced by a _Cynips_, and has been
described in the 'Library of Entertaining Knowledge' (Vegetable
Substances, p. 16). The employment of the _Cynips psenes_ for ripening
figs is described in the same volume, p. 244.
[Illustration: Gall of the Hawthorn Weevil, drawn from specimen. _a_,
Opened to show the grub.]
Gall of a Hawthorn Weevil.
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