Dec. ], 1SGS.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2S1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Insects at Folkestone.— It may interest your 

 readers to know that about the middle of August 

 last I took in lucerne fields at Folkestone in three 

 days seven specimens of Colias hyale. I refrained 

 from taking more, as I might have done, as I did 

 not wish uselessly to keep down the species, but 

 on looking at my specimens afterwards, I found 

 that no two were, even at first sight, quite alike. 

 On a bank just out of Folkestone, along the Dover 

 Road, I took at the same time a very beautiful and 

 perfect specimen of P. Adonis, measuring only nine 

 and a half lines across the wings. The ordinary 

 size of the species according to Stainton is one 

 inch two lines to one inch four lines. This is now 

 in the British Museum, where it may be seen 

 on application to one of Dr. Gray's assistants. 

 About a week afterwards I took at a field in Bolney 

 parish, near Cuckfield, Sussex, a butterfly whicli 

 very closely resembles C. helice, which I hope it 

 may prove to be. — Basil G. Greenfield. 



Crane Fly Swarms. — In the latter end of Sep- 

 tember the crane flies were so numerous in Victoria 

 Park that they were positively troublesome, flying 

 into people's faces. _ The walks, &c, were be- 

 sprinkled with them ; in some cases the tops of the 

 tents were one mass of them, and it was really 

 amusing at times to witness their grotesque antics 

 on the points of the tents as they danced and 

 capered backwards and forwards up aud down. — G. 

 Bullard. 



Spider Bites. — I am quite certain that the large 

 specimens both of Tegenaria and of Epeira are quite 

 capable of piercing the human skin, for I have 

 experimented carefully upon them ; and I think 

 that those persons who dispute it, either have not 

 been able to make the spiders put out their falces 

 properly, or have applied them to the most insen- 

 sible part of their hands. I generally find that if I 

 succeed in procuring a tolerably large tegenaria 

 without injuring it, it will instantly open its falces 

 to their greatest extent and bury them in the skin. 

 Upon removing the creature, a minute drop of blood 

 appears, a tingling sensation, and a white swelling 

 commences, not unlike that produced by a stinging- 

 nettle. This is undoubtedly produced by the poison 

 left in the wound. And if the person who is bitten 

 is in bad health the consequences might be somewhat 

 serious. The occurrence that your correspondent, 

 " R. H. N. B.," mentioned, was perhaps due to the 

 same cause (vide Science- Gossip, p. 189). I do 

 not wish to put forth these statements of mine as 

 sweeping conclusions, but I am of opiuion that 

 ninety-nine persons out of a hundred would feel the 

 bites. — A. B. 



Amber. — The dredging establishment near 

 Schwarzort, on the Curish Haff, produced about 

 83,600 lbs. of amber in the course of the year 1867. 

 In the two previous years the quantities obtained 

 were as follows, viz. :— in 1S65, 53,000 lbs. ; and in 

 1866, 73,000 lbs. The amber trade during the year 

 was not very flourishing. The expectation that the 

 business with England would become more im- 

 portant has not been fulfilled. It is most probable 

 that the large quantities of imitated amber which 

 are brought to the English and Asiatic markets, and 

 the price of which is much lower than that of the 

 genuine article, causes the demand from Prussia to 

 be so small. 



A Phenomenon.— If J. Thorpe would make a 

 microscopic examination of the blue wings of the 

 butterfly described by him in the last number of 

 Science-Gossip, he would help to unravel a physio- 

 logical puzzle. If the insect be a double sexed one, 

 the blue wings ought to show what microscopists 

 call "battledore" scales; these are on the upper 

 surface, beneath the ordinary scales, and at the 

 intervals, but if, on the other hand, it is but a case 

 of the female imitating the male markings, then 

 I should not expect the peculiar male scales would 

 be present. 1 have a singular form of Lyccena Cory- 

 don (Chalk Hill blue), taken here this summer, iu 

 whicli the hind wings have the blue male markings, 

 while the fore wings are the ordinary brown female 

 ones. I cannot on the blue wings trace " battle- 

 dores," and consequently consider it a case of a 

 female imitating the male markings only. I have 

 for years waited to examine or know the result of 

 the examination of a form like that mentioned by 

 J. T — T. W. Wonfor, Brighton. 



" Devonshire Ferns " (Science-Gossip, Oc- 

 tober, p. 238). — I found in the fissures of the rocks 

 above Auste's Cove, near Torquay, in August last, 

 nice specimens of Asplenium Ceterach, Trichomanes, 

 and Ruta nmraria, with Blechnum spicant in toler- 

 able quantities. With regard to the occurrence of 

 Osmunda regalis, in Cornwall, very finest specimens 

 were those I saw on the outskirts of Degibria 

 Wood, on the east side of the Loe Pool ; here, too, 

 Corigiola littoralis was very abundant ; Chenopodium 

 polyspermum somewhat sparingly distributed. My 

 specimens of Erica vagans were not obtained from 

 this wood, but from a wood on the west side of the 

 Pool. Specimens of Osmunda on Marazian marsh 

 were diminutive. A great number of fronds of 

 Asplenium lanceolatum (near Penzance) were bifur- 

 cated. Some frond I have is repeatedly divided. — 

 R. T., M.A. 



Red Daddy. — Allow me, through the medium of 

 your interesting journal, to call attention from your 

 readers to a little ferocious insect of the Gnat tribe, 

 which has, during the past summer months, 

 frequented this locality ; viz., the " Red Daddy." 

 This insect, about the size of a large gnat, has a 

 body, in length about three quarters of an inch ; in 

 colour red. The shape towards the head is oval. 

 This suddenly breaks off into a long tapering tail, 

 the end of which is furnished with a pair of tweezer- 

 shaped weapons (I must however add that from the 

 crown of the head, just above the eyes, spring two 

 long whip-shaped objects). This insect has the 

 power of biting from the mouth and stinging 

 acutely from the tail ; the bite of the former 

 becoming fastened upon a handkerchief is with 

 difficulty removed. I have examined the last named 

 weapon (the tweezers) under a microscope, and find 

 they have the power of parting and closing like the 

 common earwig. I learn this to be an English 

 insect, rare in its visits to this country. No doubt, 

 like the Humming Bird Moth, the intense heat of 

 the past summer proved the attraction, for I have 

 seen no more of them, I am glad to say, since the 

 arrival of the cool weather.—/. Elphick, Rose Hill, 

 Dorking. 



Lythrum hyssopipolium (S. S.). — 1 have 

 specimens of this plant found at Barton Mere, near 

 Bury St. Edmunds. In the new issue of " English 

 Botany" this plant is stated to be " very rare," and a 

 few localities are given in whicli it has been found ; 

 but neither Prestwich named by"S. S."or the place 

 given above, are included.—/. T. 



