Galleass

“ The adults are all imperfect. Holotype female and paratype adults and galls in the collections of The American Museum of Natural History; paratype adults in the collection of the author; galls at Leland Stanford University and the U. S. National Museum. These galls develop early on the unfolding leaves, looking like small air-bubbles blown in the tissue. The galls were always very new and fresh when gathered, but were also practically mature. The development of this generation of the species must be a matter of only a month or two; the other generation is unknown. ”

“ The word gallevat seems to come directly from the galeota of the Portuguese and other S. European nations, a kind of inferior galley with only one bank of oars, which appears under the form galion in Joinville, infra (not to be confounded with the galleons of a later period, which were larger vessels) , and often in the 13th and 14th centuries as galeota, galiotes, &c. It is constantly mentioned as forming part of the Portuguese fleets in India. Bluteau defines galeota as "a small galley with one mast, and with 15 or 20 benches a side, and one oar to each bench." ”

“ Put out to sea and capture that accursed black galley. String up the whole of its crew from its own yardarms and the devil take their souls. Tomorrow at daybreak I want the four galleys that are lying here at anchor to weigh anchor. Do you hear me, gentlemen? The Andrea Doria will stay here and await further orders. But the galleys will make sail tomorrow good and early. The message has already been given to the ships' captains at Sluys to put out to sea with every ship available. The black galley—bring me the black galley or bring me back Satan himself. ”

“ On the roots, the young lice attach themselves singly or in little groups, and thus hibernate. The male gall-louse has never been seen, and there is every reason to believe that he has no existence. Nor does the female ever acquire wings. Indeed, I cannot lay too much stress on the fact that gallæcola occurs only as an agamic and apterous female form. It is but a transient summer state, not at all essential to the perpetuation of the species. ”

“ I judged that this galley, which was under sail when first sighted, had come out from Cartagena in search of us, and from the fact that she did not at once bear down upon us, but hung persistently to windward, I conjectured that she was not alone, that she had one or more consorts somewhere to windward, and that, upon fully identifying the galleon, she would lower her sails, out sweeps, and be off to windward for help to tackle us. ”

“ When the pearl-fishers sailed we observed them with the glass and noted that the whole party was on board; therefore we should not need to keep a watch for the present. That night, tired out, I slept soundly, but was troubled with dreams about the galleon. For example, I dreamed that we had emptied her hold completely and found nothing in it but a sealed jar, which upon opening we found to contain a dirty visiting-card, on which was written, “I raised this galleon in 1830 and took out all her contents. This is for the benefit of the next man who tries it. ”

“ These bright colours can be of no service either to the gall-forming insect or to the tree, and probably are the direct result of the action of the light, in the same manner as the apples of Nova Scotia or Canada are brighter coloured than English apples. The strongest upholder of the doctrine that organic beings are created beautiful to please mankind would not, I presume, extend this view to galls. According to Osten Sacken's latest revision, no less than fifty-eight kinds of galls are produced on the several species of oak, by Cynips with its sub-genera ”

“ Only experience with each species, involving continued observation of specimens of the galls, and obtaining of such information as may be supplied by the size of the gall, the degree of development shown by the insect within the gall, etc., can supply information of the approach of the emergence date for a particular species. Most of the solid, hard, woody, or dry-shelled galls may be kept successfully for many months, but the adults of soft, spongy, or hollow, succulent galls cannot be raised if the galls are gathered more than a week or even a few days before the insects are due to emerge. ”

“ The young gall is in fact a callus enclosing the living larva, and it is the continued irritation of the latter which keeps up the stimulation. The final shape and constitution of the gall depend on mutual reactions—not as yet explained in detail—between the species of plant and the species of gall-insect concerned, as may readily be seen from the extraordinary variations in size, shape, colouring, hairiness and other structural peculiarities of the galls on one species of, for instance, the common oak. ”

“ To a limited extent the form of the gall does depend upon the plant tissue involved, for the possible transformations, as we have already pointed out (Kinsey 1923:21) , are more restricted in certain tissues; but beyond that the form of the gall is dependent upon the species of the insect rather than upon the species of the plant. There must be nearly as many different kinds of gall-producing enzymes as there are species of gall wasps. When a single species of gall maker attacks more than one species of oak, the form of the gall is essentially the same on all of the hosts. ”

“ Among the numerous insects parasitic on the inhabitants of galls are hymenopterous flies of the family Proctotrypidae, and of the family Chalcididae, e.g. Callimome regius, the larva of which preys on the larvae of both Cynips glutinosa and its lodger Synergus facialis. The oak-apple often contains the larvae of Braconidae and Ichneumonidae, which Von Schlechtendal (loc. sup. cit. p. 33) considers to be parasites not on the owner of the gall, Andricus terminalis, but on inquilinous Tortricidae. Birds are to be included among the enemies of gall-insects. ”

“ The pincushion galls on young white oaks are now among the most beautiful objects in the woods,—coarse, woolly, white, spotted with bright red or crimson on the exposed side. It is remarkable that a mere gall, which at first we are inclined to regard as something abnormal, should be made so beautiful, as if it were the flower of the tree; that a disease, an excrescence, should prove, perchance, the greatest beauty, as the tear of the pearl; beautiful scar let sins they may be. Through our temptations, aye, and our falls, our virtues appear. ”

“ The characters of galls are constant, and as a rule exceedingly diagnostic, even when, as in the case of ten different gall-gnats of an American willow, Salix humilis, it is difficult or impossible to tell the full-grown insects that produce them from one another. In degree of complexity of internal structure galls differ considerably. Some are monothalamous, and contain but one larva of the gall-maker, whilst others are many-celled and numerously inhabited. ”

“ On the fourth day the water was so low that the shark was almost aground, and I put two loads of buckshot into the living grave of Captain Senlis, whereupon it succumbed, and left the galleon unguarded.
By night of this fourth day the basin was pumped out sufficiently, and the galleon lay almost completely exposed, the water inside of her still leaking out slowly. Completely exhausted we went to bed early and left her to drain as she might. Human nature could endure no more. ”

“ For the larvae of their makers the galls provide shelter and sustenance. The exciting cause of the hypertrophy, in the case of the typical galls, appears to be a minute quantity of some irritating fluid, or virus, secreted by the female insect, and deposited with her egg in the puncture made by her ovipositor in the cortical or foliaceous parts of plants. This virus causes the rapid enlargement and subdivision of the cells affected by it, so as to form the tissues of the gall. Oval or larval irritation also, without doubt, plays an important part in the formation of many galls. ”

“ The Gall-flies, Cynipidæ, are the easiest of the families to collect, because of their abundance and because of the ease with which they may be reared. Their galls occur in enormous variety on oaks of various species and also upon brambles and certain common weeds. These should be collected when mature and be kept in glass jars. The Gall-flies and inquilinous and parasitic species may thus be easily obtained, the former appearing at particular seasons and the latter emerging from the galls at all seasons of the year, and sometimes continuing to escape for a period exceeding two years. ”

“ Some of them may be only uninvited but not especially harmful guests, just other kinds of gall-insects that seem to have given up the habit—if they ever had it—of starting houses of their own, and have adopted the cuckoo-like way of laying their eggs in the just-starting houses of other gall-insects. The grubs, or young of these messmate gall-insects, live in, and feed on, the same house, with the rightful dwellers, but as the oak-tree has plenty of sap and the gall-house is usually large enough for all, there is generally no harm done by these cuckoo intruders. ”

“ It is thick woodland and we find only stray galls now and again. They are smooth and naked specimens, for aught we can tell like the smooth galls of erinacei. A mile down the road we find an open meadow where two isolated trees offer promise of richer collections. The farm boy helps, and we collect more smooth galls while we wonder about the varied mixture which spreads so many miles back of us. It is drizzling now, and sheets of fine snow come whirling off the mountain, but we espy a tree in the next open, and in the gathering dusk find—many naked but only two spiny galls for our collections! ”

“ The frame was in position, and it now only remained to attach the calabashes, one cage of them at a time, and we hoped the galleon would be lifted. In preparation for this work,—which we would not be ready to undertake for some time, or until all the calabashes were caged and fitted with attaching ropes,—we had, before sinking the frame-work, passed over the spar that connected the two triangles the bight of an endless rope, for use as a down-haul with which the calabash cages might be pulled down. ”

“ Nay, far from being under apprehension, they are certain of their game; since their galleots are so extremely light and nimble, and in such excellent order, as they always are [63] ; whereas, on the contrary, the Christian galleys [Pg 223] are so heavy, so embarrassed, and in such bad order and confusion, that it is utterly in vain to think of giving them chase, or of preventing them from going and coming, and doing just as they their selves please. ”

“ That the bewitched old galleon should{202} have run her nose exactly into this place of all others, when there were miles of fair sloping beach on which she might have stranded, seemed like a deadly stab in the back by a treacherous adverse fate. It was enough to make a man swear, if that would have done any good. ”

“ The power that gall-producers possess of influencing by direct interference the growth of the cells of the plant that affords them the means of subsistence is an art that appears to be widely spread among animals, but is at the same time one of which we have little knowledge. The views of Adler as to the alternation of generations of numerous gall-flies have been fully confirmed, it having been ascertained by direct observation that the galls and the insects produced from them in one generation are entirely different from the next generation ”

“ The aperture by which the insect escapes is always near the middle. When not perforated, the galls are of a dark olive green, and comparatively heavy; but after the fly has bored its way out, they become of a yellowish-brown hue, and lighter in weight. Hence the distinction in commerce of Blue or Green Galls, and White Galls.
Aleppo galls are hard and brittle, splitting under the hammer; they have an acidulous, very astringent taste followed by a slight sweetness, but have no marked odour. ”

“ Galls are formed by insects of several orders. Among the Hymenoptera are the gall-wasps (Cynips and its allies) , which infect the various species of oak. They are small insects, having straight antennae, and a compressed, usually very short abdomen with the second or second and third segments greatly developed, and the rest imbricated, and concealing the partially coiled ovipositor. ”

“ But there is a mouth on this silly sort of head, and the grub eats. What it eats is part of its own house!
The houses, or galls, as the entomologists call them, are of course not actually made [Pg 291] by the insects that live in them; they are made by the oak-tree on which they are. But they are only made at the demand, so to speak, of the insects. That is, the oak-galls are formed only where a gall-insect has pricked a live leaf or stem or twig with her sharp, sting-like little egg-layer, and has left an egg in the plant-tissue. Nor does the gall begin to form even yet. ”

“ Here, ten years ago, more or less, I saw my first gallinule. We had heard his outcries for some days (I speak of myself and two better men) , and a visiting New York ornithologist had told us that they were probably the work of a gallinule. They came always from the most inaccessible parts of the swamp, where it seemed hopeless to wade in pursuit of the bird, since we wished to see him alive; but turning the question over in my mind, I bethought myself of this low hilltop, with its command of an open stretch of water between a broad expanse of cat-tails and a wood. ”