Note dd — BOOK VIII.

For a Sample of the tender Balls, I shall choose the globous Ball, as round, and some as big as small Musket-Bullets, growing close to the Ribs, under Oaken-Leaves, of a greenish yellowish Colour, with a blush of red; their Skin smooth, with frequent Risings therein. Inwardly they are very soft and spongy; and in the very Center is a Case with a white Maggot therein, which becomes an Ichneumon-Fly, not much unlike the last. As to this Gall, there is one Thing I have observed somewhat peculiar, and I may say providential, and that is, that the Fly lies all the Winter in these Balls in its Infantile-State, and comes not to its Maturity till the following Spring. In the Autumn, and Winter, these Balls fall down with their Leaves to the Ground, and the Insect inclosed in them is there fenced against the Winter Frosts, partly by other Leaves falling pretty thick upon them, and especially by the thick, parenchymous, spongy Walls, afforded by the Galls themselves.

Another Sample shall be the large Oak-Balls, called Oak-Apples, growing in the Place of the Buds, whose Generation, Vegetation and Figure, may be seen in Malpig. de Gallis, p. 24. and Tab. 10. Fig. 33, &c. Out of these Galls, he saith various Species of Flies come, but he names only two, and they are the only two I ever saw come out of them: Frequenter (saith he) subnigræ sunt muscæ brevi munitæ terebrâ. Inter has aliquæ observantur aureæ, levi viridis tincturâ suffusæ, oblongâ pollentes terebrâ. These two differently coloured Flies, I take to be no other than Male and Female of the same Species. I have not observed Tails (which are their Terebræ) in all, as Malpighi seems to intimate: Perhaps they were hid in their Thecæ, and I could not discover them: But I rather think there were none, and that those were the Males: But in others, I have observed long, recurvous Tails, longer than their whole Bodies. And these I take to be the Females. And in the Oak-Apples themselves, I have seen the Aureliæ, some with, some without Tails. And I must confess, ’twas not without Admiration as well as Pleasure, that I have seen with what exact Neatness and Artifice, the Tail hath been wrapt about the Aurelia, whereby it is secured from either annoying the Insect, or being hurt it self.