Journal of Proceedings.
lxxvii
and Mr. Hope some specimens of Essex sea-weeds. It was announced
that an Entomological Cabinet of thirty drawers had been purchased
for the Museum.
The following were elected members of the Club:—Messrs. C. M.
Bayfield, G. Biddell, Frank Evershed, F.I.C, D. Radford Sharpe, F.M.S.,
F. H. Spiller, and A. Godfrey Wells.
The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Francis Darwin, returning the
thanks of Mrs. Darwin and family for the vote of sympathy and con-
dolence upon the death of the late Charles Darwin passed by the Club
on April 29th last.
Mr. English exhibited specimens of a supposed gall which he had
found about the middle of September in the seed-pods of the Common
Broom (Cytisus scoparius) growing in Epping Forest. The normally
black ripe pods presented a somewhat remarkable appearance, inasmuch
as they were partly coloured—some half black and half green, and
some wholly green. On examination he found that the green portions
of the pods enclosed what he took to be an elongated gall, each con-
taining a larva. In some cases the perfect insect had emerged, leaving
part of the pupa-case protruding. [Judging from an examination of
the dried specimens exhibited by Mr. English, we are disposed to think
that they are really galls, caused by the larva; of one of the Cecidomyidae,
Asphondylia sarothamni, Lw. In a paper on " The Asphondyliae of the
Glasgow district" (Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, vol. iii., p. 111), Mr.
F. G. Binnie describes three forms of this gall as occurring on the
Common Broom, vit., two axillary, and one on the pod. He thus
refers to the galled pod:—"The part affected becomes inflated, is oval
or round in shape, circular in transverse section, and projecting equally
on both sides of the pod. It is thin-walled, forming an internal cavity
which contains a single larva, and the galled portion retains its green
colour after the rest of the pod has become black. The perfect insect
emerges by a hole in the side. The gall is found during the summer,
and the present species (A. sarothamni, Lw.) has been bred from it by
Mr. Traill. I have only seen it in one locality, near Milngavie, and
have failed to find it elsewhere." Some of the largest species of the
Family Cecidomyidae are, according to Mr. Binnie, found in the genus
Asphondylia, and the pupae are provided with two projecting tooth-like
processes at the anterior end, to assist them in forcing their way
through the tissues of the enclosing galls when about to assume the
perfect state. All this accords well with Mr. English's observations.
One of the axillary galls of A. sarothamni, "usually crowded together
on the apical portions of the twigs," is mentioned in Mr. Fitch's " Galls
of Essex" (Trans., vol. ii., 123), but the galled pod of the Broom does
not appear in his list.—Ed.]
Mr. W. Cole said that while on the subject of galls he might mention
one which Mr. A. Lockyer and himself had found early in June in the
Forest, during the explorations at the Loughton Camp. Young leaves