232 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOS SIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1S70. 



tinued until the whole of the eggs or larvae were de- 

 voured. This predilection for eggs and larvae of 

 Lepidoptera may be well known to other naturalists, 

 but I have not seen it recorded anywhere. I can 

 now account for the otherwise mysterious disap- 

 pearance of several batches of eggs in my garden 

 that 1 had been watching or trying to preserve. In 

 connection with the fly [Chrysopa per/a) itself, Mr. 

 Peake, of Brighton, has discovered a Pygidium upon 

 it. All microscopists are aware that the common 

 flea supplies a Pygidium, sometimes used as a test 

 object; but that the Lace-wing fly had one is not 

 generally known, and microscopists may now add 

 another object to their cabinets, for at this time of 

 the year the insect is easily obtained. — T. W. Won- 

 for, Brighton, Sept., 1S70. 



Helix nemobalis. — In relation to a query 

 about //. nemoralis in last month's Science-Gossip, 

 I send the following note: — Helix nemoralis. 

 Wherever I have had an opportunity of examining 

 sand-hills, I have fdtmd H. nemoralis in great abun- 

 dance, both alive and dead. At Great Yarmouth it 

 is almost the only mollusc on the sand-hill there ; 

 the empty shells drip together when the sand is 

 loose by the wind, while the living ones are hidden 

 amongst herbage under lichens and moss. Beetles 

 and ants destroy the snail or empty dead ones, and 

 the shells last a long time, gradually accumulating, 

 which may account for the numbers noticed by 

 II. AUingham in a dead state. On the Irish coast 

 they seem fond of sea air. — Harry C. Leslie, Eritli. 



Hawk-moths. — As Mr. Newman tells us that 

 the undoubtedly British specimens of Deilephila 

 livorniea in English cabinets are "few," I have 

 much pleasure in enabling you to add to the num- 

 ber the record of one more authentic capture. On 

 the Shth of September it was my good fortune to 

 catch one with the net, as it hovered over the 

 geraniums in my garden just before dark. It is 

 fresh and in perfect condition, as if on its first ex- 

 cursion after leaving the pupa-case. The Humming- 

 bird moth is a nightly visitor to my flower-borders ; 

 sometimes a pair may be seen probing the tubes of 

 the Wiltshire Lass geranium within two feet of each 

 other. Two years ago 1 took *S'. convoleuli near the 

 same spot. Perhaps it may be of use to some of 

 your readers to describe a means, which I have em- 

 ployed with success, of extricating these large 

 moths from the net without rough handling. I 

 carry in my waistcoat pocket one of Highley's drop- 

 ping bottles containing chloroform ; grasping the 

 net above the insect, I either lay it gently on the 

 ground, when the moth ceases to flutter, or, if it 

 becomes quiet without this process, I at once drop 

 on it a few drops of chloroform through the gauze, 

 and all need for squeezing its thorax is of course 

 done away with. It should then be transferred to 



the influence of laurel-leaves, for chloroform has a 

 tendency to stiffen the muscles, while the leaves 

 have a contrary effect ; and this difference, as 

 lepidopterists know, materially affects the ease of 

 I setting. As " Gossip " is garrulous, I am tempted 

 i to go on with more experiences of this season for 

 the encouragement of young collectors ; for a few 

 evenings before Lhornica fell a prey to my net I 

 had obtained my first.'specimen of Catocala promisso 

 by sugaring. The same lure has given me four 

 L. stamineola, and some other good insects in more 

 or less plenty, as, e. g. Agrotis puta, Noctua umbrosa, 

 H. micacea, Cosmia diffinis, T. interjecta, C. Cytharea^ 

 Former seasons have given me from the same trees, 

 E. nigra, I. subsequa, X. petrijicata, X. semibrunnca, 

 P. festucm (only one), N. neglccta, C. alsines. — 

 H. G. W. Aubrey, Salisbury. 



Quail's Eggs (p. 209).— Bewick says: "The 

 female makes her nest like the partridge, and lays 

 to the number of six or seven eggs ; but in Prauce, 

 according to Buffon, they lay fifteen or twenty." 

 We may truly say of them, "they do these things 

 better in Prance." Mudie says they lay as mauy 

 as the partridge; i.e., seldom fewer than a dozen. — 

 W. R. Tate, 4, Grove Place, Denmark Hill. 



Bees as Botanists (p. 215). — I am afraid I have 

 no right to take the credit of having discovered the 

 fact (?) that bees collect honey from only one kind 

 of flower during the same journey, though Mr. 

 Britten and Mr. Grindon ("Little Things of 

 Nature") are both kind enough to say that I was 

 the first to notice it. It may, possibly, have been 

 from me that these friends of mine first heard of the 

 circumstance, and so they have thought the dis- 

 covery was mine. I do not know when or how I 

 first became acquainted with this curious fact, as I 

 believe we must call it ; but I fancy it was from the 

 letters of the Times " Bee-master," which were 

 published some years ago. As far as I have ob- 

 served, however (but I have not looked into the 

 matter very closely), I do think that bees, when 

 j foraging, confine themselves, though not strictly, to 

 one kind of plant, and I use the word " kind," iu 

 1 order to include allied species; for I do not 

 ! suppose that bees which were collecting honey 

 from Trifolium repens, for instance, would pass ovec 

 T. clegans ; neither would bees that were sipping 

 the sweets of Rosa canina object to the nectar of 

 Rosa arcensis. Indeed, in this way there is n® 

 doubt that hybrids are formed between different 

 j species. I cannot help thinking that, in thus con- 

 | fining themselves to one kind of flower, bees are 

 guided by the sense of smell. Even to our olfactory 

 nerves, there is a notable difference between the 

 honeys obtained from several kinds of plants. 

 Heather honey has an unmistakable perfume, so 

 I has that from orange-flowers— that is, if the so- 



