HAHDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Moths under Water. — A curious incident oc- 

 curred to me some weeks ago while sugaring with 

 a friend at Catford. We were sitting together on 

 the banks of a stream, and pinning out our captures, 

 which consisted of several C. mipta and M. maiira, 

 when the box, which was a heavy metal one, slipped 

 from our knees and fell with all its contents to the 

 bottom of the river. Luckily it was open, and with 

 a hooked stick we managed to get it up again, 

 after one or two minutes. Of course, the box was 

 soaked, but, strange to say, the insects were scarcely 

 damp, and the scales of the wings were quite un- 

 injured. Considering their rapid passage through 

 the water of a running stream, and their con- 

 sequent sojourn at the bottom, I think this was 

 rather curious. — £. G. Lefroy. 



Rearing Young Dormice.— I have failed three 

 times in my attempts to bring up broods of dor- 

 mice. On looking into the nest, I always found 

 that the mother had destroyed one of her young, 

 and she killed the rest soon after. She was fed 

 during ten days before examining the nest, so it 

 could not have been hunger that made her do this, 

 and I always carefully avoid disturbing her. If any 

 of your readers who have had practical experience 

 in the matter would give me some hints on the 

 rearing of these little creatures, I should feel ex- 

 tremely obliged. — W. K. Curling. 



Catocala Eraxini. — In answer to the query of 

 Mr. Pickin (p. 283, last vol.), it is not difficult to 

 account for the occasional appearance here of this 

 insect by the "blown-over" theory, considering its 

 expanse and strength of wing. ^Q\i years pass 

 without records of individual captures in this 

 country. It has been taken in Shropshire before, 

 but in what part of the Gounty I do not know. I 

 have never heard of the larva having been found 

 in England.—^. S. Kemp Welch. 



Preservation of LAUYiE. — I would supplement 

 Mr. Auld's practical and excellent notes by adding 

 that it is well, as I am informed, that when a larva is 

 selected for operating upon whieh has only recently 

 cast its skin (in order that the colours may have due 

 freshness), a sufficient time after the change must 

 be allowed for the skin and hairs, if any, to become 

 properly dry ere the insect is killed. Also it is ad- 

 visable in all cases to keep the larva without food 

 for a short space, so as to have no faecal deposit in 

 the interior. To some experimenters the process 

 of evisceration which has to be carried out is par- 

 ticularly unpleasant; and I have a recollection 

 some years since of reading a description of a plan 

 supposed to obviate this. I do not remember the 

 exact details, but the finishing off was baking, as in 

 Mr. Auld's method, only preceding that was, as I 

 think, a soaking or maceration in a solution. Per- 

 haps amongst the readers of Science-Gossip there 

 may be some who have tried this or any other plan 

 to avoid opening the body, and can inform us as to 

 whether it is at all feasible. As far back as 1857 I 

 was shown by a Mr. Ferguson, of Battersea, a 

 number of different insects preserved in glycerine, 

 and among them some larvae. They were suspended 

 by the liind pair of claspers, and though the colours 

 and markings were preserved, they necessarily pre- 

 sented rather an unnatural aspect. — J. R. S. C. 



Appearance of Male Aphides. — Amongst the 

 other effects of the eold weather at the early part 

 of the last summer was the appearance of the winged 

 males of several species of Aphis. These, as is 



well known, usually emerge in autumn, when pair- 

 ing takes place, and eggs are deposited, which pro- 

 duce the next year's brood. This anticipation of 

 autumn I noticed in the common plane-tree more 

 particularly, but it occurred also on other plants. 

 I presume, however, that these summer males are 

 the parents of aphid larvae, not eggs, or perhaps 

 barren. — /. B. S. C. 



Luminous Ehizopoda.— I have noticed on the 

 Welsh coast the singular phosphorescence men- 

 tioned by " A. B. C," Croydon. I saw it last spring 

 on a small slip of sand about two miles from Beau- 

 maris, and I have been told that it proceeded from 

 a very minute animal, the Noctiluca miliaris. A lady 

 on a visit to me at the time, told me that her father 

 (Major Bernard) had, both in Ireland and on the 

 Continent, found this rhizopod in v/et sand. I 

 conclude it is the cause of the luminosity of the sea 

 on our coast, just as the Pyrosoma Atlantica is in 

 tropical regions.— J/ra. Alfred Watney. 



Heeds and Organs. — How few of us are there 

 who, as we pass along the reed-grown banks, or 

 gaze at the shallows of mere or stream, recall the 

 fact that a musical instrument, which, from its 

 sacred and secular uses, may claim to rank the 

 highest, traces its origin to a lowly reed ! Yet 

 so it is. The Pan pipe, the history of which goes 

 back to the earliest ages, was just hollow reeds 

 rudely fastened together. These pipes were of 

 ditfering lengths, and closed at the bottom. Thus 

 we have the mouth-organ in its primitive form, 

 which the myths fabled to be the work of Pan, 

 and in a competition with Apollo, the former bore 

 off the palm. It seems a long distance from this 

 rude instrument to the large and elaborate organ 

 of modern times, yet most of the intermediate 

 stages are traceable.—/. B. S. C. 



A Plague of Elies.— It being now summer. 

 Hies swarmed in fearful numbers in the abodes of 

 the Boers. Ouentering the house, 1 found the walls 

 of the large sitting-room black with these disgusting 

 insects. They are a cruel plague to the settlers in 

 Southern Africa, and it often requires considerable 

 ingenuity to eat one's dinner or drink a cup of 

 cotfee without swallowing some of them. — Gordon 

 Cumming, " The Lion Hunter in South Africa." 



Honey-dew.— The summer of 1825, especially in 

 June and July, was peculiarly hot and dry. The 

 quantity of that sweet iclannny fluid which we find 

 upon certain leaves, and commonly called honey- 

 dew, was more than usually abundant during these 

 months. In the daytime bees, wasps, and tribes 

 of flies collected to feed upon it, and in the even- 

 ings moths and insects of the night frequented the 

 fruit-ti-ees on our walls, particularly the cherry and 

 the plum, for the same purpose. Aphides abounded 

 upon all the young sprays. — Knapp, "Journal of a 

 Naturalist," 



Communications Received from — C. S. S. — E. B. — 

 J. J. M.— J. P.— F. C— G. H. H.— G. J. L. L.— K. H.— J. R. 

 W.— S. S.— H. E. W.-S. O.— W. F.— A. H.— W. G. F.— A. A. 

 -F. M.W.-G. v.— E. W.— J. T.— E. H. G.-A. C. H.— J. 

 R. D.— T. B. B.— E. C. M.— T. V. C— W. N.— J. A.— E. R. F. 

 — T. S., Jun.— T. W. F.— R. W. W.— E E. M.— F. K.— C. G. 

 B.— W. S. K.— W. C— C. C. A.— E. L.— K. B, Jun.— J. M. 

 D. A.— G. R.— E. L.— H. M. C. a.— W. W.— C. M.— J. P. H, 

 B.— J. H.— J. T.— J. C— J. B.— T. B. W.— H. O. S.— J. H. C. 

 — G. S. S.— C. J. R.— E. L.-F. W. G— C. S. S.— J. B.-J. D. 

 M.— J. G.— R. H.— W. S. P.— F. W. P.— J. H. W,— F. F.— 

 H. H. C.-G. D. B.— A. F. B.-Dr. H. G.— J. P.— A. D.~J. 

 R. D.— H. B.— G. G.— J. B.— E. H.— C. H. G.— J. A., Jun.— 

 J. C. H.-G. C.-J. S.-F. V^.— J. H.-C. L.J.— E. L. &c. 



