HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



ZOOLOGY. 



The late William Alford Lloyd.— We regret 

 to announce the death of Mr. W. A. Lloyd, formerly 

 of the Crystal Palace Aquarium, whose valuable 

 advice has been sought in connection with aquaria by 

 persons in all parts of the scientific world. Mr. Lloyd 

 was a regular correspondent of Science-Gossip, and 

 kept up this connection till the last. The last article 

 of his, entitled " Frozen-over Fish-ponds," appeared 

 in the December number, 1879. Mr. Lloyd was a 

 remarkably earnest and upright man, and more than 

 once in his life forewent advantages when the latter 

 in any way compromised his scientific views. 



Isle of Man Natural History Society. — 

 This society, which is now an established fact, made 

 its first excursion on Monday, May 24th. The 

 locality chosen was the quaint old town of Peel, 

 renowned for its castle and the relics of a once 

 famous abbey, the scene in Sir Walter Scott's 

 novel of " Peveril of the Peak." The castle was 

 the first place visited, and, as might be expected, the 

 Henbane {Hyoscyamus niger) was found growing near 

 the walls. The only fern noticed was As planum 

 mar inum, which was growing at a considerable height 

 on the ruins. After leaving the castle a fine specimen 

 of the common Guillemot (Uria troile), which had 

 been caught on a fish-hook in the harbour, was 

 brought to the party for examination. Owing to the 

 mildness of the climate the Camomile {Anthemis 

 nobilis), an autumnal flowering plant, was discovered 

 in bloom. An extempore museum was inspected, 

 formed by various private collectors in the neighbour- 

 hood. A short meeting of the society was next con- 

 vened, at which the president, Edwin Birchall, Esq., 

 F.L.S., read an interesting paper on Algccria philan- 

 thiformis, an insect almost peculiar to the Isle of 

 Man. The excursion was a complete success, and a 

 vote of thanks was given to Mr. P. Kermode, who 

 undertook the arrangements. 



The Cocoon of Cionus scrophulari^:. — The 

 cocoon of this beetle, one of the Curculionidae, seems 

 to me so peculiar in the manner of its formation 

 as to deserve a special description. No extraneous 

 materials enter into its composition, and it does not 

 appear to be produced by any spinneret, oral or anal. 

 The only mention of it I have been able to meet with 

 is in the 1st vol. of Westwood's " Modern Classifica- 

 tion of Insects," where it is stated, at p. 343 : 

 " Schaffer has figured the transformations of the 

 C. scropkularia {Abhandl. vol. iii. pi. 9) ... . 

 The cocoon is formed with open meshes, like that of 

 the Hyperre." This description altogether disagrees 

 with the cocoon of C. scrop/iularnc as I find it 

 abundantly here. The larva belongs to the limaci- 

 form type, very much resembling a small slug, and 

 crawls over the leaves of S. nodosa, on which it feeds, 



by means of the sticky mucus which its body 

 secretes. When about to pupate, the larva contracts 

 itself, drawing in the head and tail and arching up 

 the back, to a grape-shaped spheroid resting on a 

 small oval base. One soon observes a whitish 

 "bloom" over the head and fore-parts, which on 

 closer inspection is seen to be a jelly-like substance, 

 somewhat resembling boiled starch, and appears to 

 envelop the head and anterior segments, especially 

 around the base of attachment, and to be breaking 

 out in patches along the dorsum. The larva is busy 

 with its head buried in it, moulding, chewing, in- 

 salivating (?), and working this starch-like matter 

 into a mould over itself. Whitish and soft at first, 

 this substance hardens and stiffens eventually into 

 the cocoon, which is parchment-like in colour and 

 consistence. At first there are holes with everted 

 edges sparsely scattered over the equatorial region 

 for about two-thirds of the length of the cocoon, like 

 the rough side of a nutmeg-grater, which, however, 

 are soon plastered up from the inside, and the whole 

 cocoon becomes a perfectly closed investment. If 

 now the cocoon be detached from the leaf, it will be 

 found to have an oval hole on one side at the place 

 where it was fastened ; and if this be done before the 

 larva has become quiescent, it immediately sets about 

 repairing the deficiency. Through the opening I have 

 seen it plucking off, with its mandibles, little round 

 pellets of the whitish starch-like matter which seemed 

 to be excreted somewhere near the anus. These it 

 sticks on to the edge of the opening, and draws out 

 and moulds with its mouth into a membrane which 

 soon dries up and becomes of the texture and colour 

 of the rest of the cocoon, from which the imago 

 subsequently escapes by a circular opening which it 

 cuts in one of its ends. — J. A. Osborne, M.D., Mil/or J, 

 Letterkenny. 



Varieties of L. sibylla and A. paphiain the 

 New Forest. — While stopping at Brockenhurst I 

 captured, on July 5th, a black variety of L. sibylla in 

 good condition, and on the 17th I caught a male 

 specimen of A. paphia settled on a thistle-head in 

 one of the rides, which on examination I found had a 

 small white patch on each of the fore-wings, which is 

 repeated, but not so distinctly, in the hind-wings. I 

 believe this variety is of uncommon occurrence. — 

 A. J. R. 



Honey and no Bees. — I see on page 118 of 

 Science-Gossip, for May, that A. A. and the bee- 

 keepers could not account for the fact that no bees 

 were found in the hive, but they had left plenty of 

 honey. It appears that, although they had kept bees 

 a great many years, they had not found out that such 

 is frequently the case with first swarms, which are 

 always accompanied by old queens, and that such is 

 of common occurrence, when the old queen has 

 reached the age of three years (the duration of her 



