208 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., on "The Otter," which 

 is locally and generally valuable on account of the 

 research exhibited in collecting everything relating 

 to the former breeding and disti'ibution of this 

 animal, especially in Norfolk. The principal paper, 

 however, and one which exhibits most long-con- 

 tinued work, is that by Mr. C. B. Plowright, 

 M.E.C.S., on the "Fungi of Norfolk," which con- 

 tains a full list of all the species hitherto found, 

 each authenticated by a competent observer. 

 Another paper, by Dr. Beverley, " On the Edible 

 Eungi found in Norfolk," is also valuable. In 

 addition to the above papers, the volume contains a 

 series of zoological notes, furnished chiefly by 

 Messrs. Stevenson and Southwell, relating to local 

 matters. Altogether, therefore, it will be seen we 

 have only done justice to a hard-workiug societylby 

 calling public attention to the naturelof the work 

 done in 1872-73. 



ZoNiTES GLABEE. — Your correspondent "E. H." 

 in last month's Gossip, answering another corre- 

 spondent, "A. P.," of the previous month in reference 

 to the discovery of Zonites glaher as a British shell, 

 says that it was first discovered by Mr. Miller in 

 1822, who described and published the same in his 

 "List of Shells about Bristol." If "E. H." will 

 look over the said list as published in 1823, 1 think 

 he will find that he is mistaken. I inclose Mr. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys' account as published in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History for May, 1870. 

 I may say that the Zonites glaher is by no 

 means rare, and probably may be found in every 

 county in England and Wales (as it is already 

 known to be in eight or nine), the most northern of 

 which is Westmoreland, and the most southern the 

 Channel Isles.— r. Tx. 



Zonites glaber : a new British Land-shell. 

 — My correspondent, Mr. Thomas Rogers, of Man- 

 chester, has added another species to this well- 

 worked department of our fauna. Specimens of a 

 Zonites which he has now sent me, collected by him 

 under stones at Marple Wood, in Clieshire, prove 

 to be the Helix glabra of Studor, Fcr. Prodr., 

 No. 215. Z. glaher has a wide range on the Con- 

 tinent, from Normandy (where I have taken it), 

 through France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and 

 Dalmatia, to Epirus in Greece. I also found the 

 same species in 181^6 at Grassmere, and in 1857 at 

 Barmouth, but had overlooked it. Mr. Kogers's 

 specimens being alive, I subjoin a description of tlie 

 animal. Body dark bluish-grey, striped like a 

 zebra on each side in front, and irregularly mottled 

 behind ; in one of the specimens the hinder part of 

 the foot is minutely speckled with yellowish-brown 

 dots ; two narrow and slight parallel grooves run 

 along the neck from the head to the upper lip of 

 the shell ; the surface is more or less wrinkled, and 



has a few large but indistinct lozenge-shaped mark- 

 ings ; mantle very thick and dark at the mouth of 

 the shell, over which its edges are folded ; tentacles, 

 upper pair rather long, and finely granulated ; lower 

 pair very short ; eyes small, placed on the upper 

 part, but not at the tips, of the tentacular bulbs ; 

 respiratory orifice round, occupying the centre of 

 the pallial fold ; foot very long and.slender, — the 

 sole appears as if separated from the upper part of 

 the foot, being defined by a darker line; slime thin 

 and nearly transparent. I could not detect any 

 smell of garlic (so peculiar to Z. alliarius), although 

 I frequently irritated the animals. The shell is 

 three times the size of that of its nearest congener, 

 Z. alliarius, and is of a reddish-brown or waxy 

 colour ; the whorls are more convex or swollen, 

 the lower part of the shell is not so much arched, 

 the mouth is larger, the umbilicus is smaller and 

 narrower, and the colour underneath is sometimes 

 whitish. — J. Gicyn Jeffreys, in Annals of Nat. Hist., 

 May, 1870. 



How DO Parasitic Insects detect their 

 Prey ? — A variety of opinions have been expressed 

 as] to the means by which ichneumon flies, and 

 other parasitic insects, discover the living objects 

 upon which they seek to deposit their eggs. Some 

 have inferred that this is done by sight, others by 

 smell, or by the operation of some peculiar sense 

 unknown to us. The rapid movements of some of 

 the Hymenopterous parasites which attack cater- 

 pillars would rather lead one to suppose that the 

 sense of touch is an agent, if not the sole agent. 

 These flies may be noticed running rapidly up and 

 down leaves and twigs, with vibrating antennae and 

 palpi, sometimes going over very nearly the same 

 ground again and again, which they would hardly 

 do if they chiefly depended upon their eyes; and 

 were any odour given forth which led them to their 

 victims, these flies would hardly wander about in 

 the manner we see. It is quite possible they may 

 detect even the larva of Tortrices by the feel of 

 the leaf enclosing these, though the larvse themselves 

 are screened. — /. R. S. C. 



New British Hemiptera.— Mr. John Scott 

 records the occurrence of an additional genus and 

 species of British Hemiptera, in the August number 

 of the Entomologist's Magazine, named Loxops 

 coccineus. The specimen was taken at St. Albans, 

 last year, by sweeping, by the Rev. J. A. Marshall. 

 It occurs sparingly on the Continent, generally 

 singly. 



New Species of Cellepora.— Mr. Edward 

 Parfitt describes in the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History for August, a new species of Celk' 

 pora obtained by him at Exmouth, and to which 

 he has given the name of Cellepora hemispharica^ 

 from the cells forming little hemispherical masses. 



