Folks,

           If it’s 1800 hrs. this pathologist has turned into an internet student of entomology.   I reared a Perilampid out of an Oak gall, which I had assumed to have been a Cynipid gall.   One thing leads to another (on the internet) and I began to read about Cynipid sex, and found it to be as complex as my  previous study of aphid life cycles.   I suspect some authors have different names for the same stage, and others use the same name for different phases.   My most recent reading talked about 2 types of males or females and yet the diagrammes showed them behaving the same.  So here is my question.

Would the professionals like to  recommend a text book to an amateur who wants to understand  the strategies, sex determination and  insect life cycles, across all orders &c, (and yet not get too bogged down in the details of the DNA of some fruit fly)?  

Yours,

             Martin MacKenzie, Forest Pathologist

             Southern Sierra Shared Service Area

             Stanislaus National Forest

             19777 Greenley Road

             Sonora, CALIFORNIA

                         95370

             (209) 532 3671 ext 242

              qui docet discit