HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



ZOOLOGY. 



Transparent Burnet Moth. — When in Corn- 

 wall, in 1S65, I obtained several transparent Burnets 

 (A. Minos). They were captured by a friend near 

 the ruins of Tintagel Castle, where he saw them in 

 great numbers ; he put them in a fusee-box and gave 

 them to me after they had been in his pocket during 

 a long ride. At the time I thought they were common 

 six-spot Burnets much rubbed during their journey. 

 Some time ago, observing the narrowness of the 

 border of the hind wings, I came to the conclusion 

 that they were specimens of A. Minos, and, seeing 

 that Stainton gives no English locality for this species, 

 I thought it advisable to record these Cornish cap- 

 tures for the benefit of the readers of SciENCE- 

 GOSSIP. — JV. Gain, Tuxford. 



Meteorology and Insects. — The recent Mar- 

 tinmas summer of clear skies and surprisingly spring- 

 like temperature, rendered grateful with the voice of 

 the song birds and gentle breathing of the west wind, 

 has exerted an influence not a little marked in pro- 

 longing the activity of insect life on the Surrey Downs. 

 Various common Muscides are to be seen at noon 

 buzzing around tarred palings. I have noticed 

 esiDecially, Miisca vomitoria, Sarcophaga carnaria, and 

 3fiisca domcstica, so engaged ; indeed one of the first 

 mentioned flies is at this very moment making a 

 pitiable effort to gambol, as has been her wont, from 

 the ceiling of the room in which I write back to the 

 window pane. Then, as the shadows fall on the lanes, 

 the monotony of a brisk winter's walk amoiig the 

 feathery clematis is not a little pleasantly alleviated 

 by the wheeling whiz of the numerous stercorarious 

 beetles that are stained beneath with every transition 

 from a dark ordinary amethyst-violet to the most stark 

 and staring of golden-greens, and which appear to 

 belong uniformly to one species, the Gcotnipes 

 sylvaticHS of Stephens ; while a return home by the 

 outlying gas lights, has at times revealed quite an 

 imusual number of fitfully lethargic winter moths 

 {Chcimatoba brnmata) there segregated, and ap- 

 parently basking on the iron framework and glass 

 shade. It is indeed often possible to get a dozen 

 or so from one lamp by means of a walking stick. 

 Later on, when the orange glow has turned to grey 

 in the sky and the evening lamp is lit, there arise from 

 the quarter of the kitchen and rain-water butt, various 

 species of Culex, Psychoda, and other minute flies. 

 On one occasion, there descended from out of a dusty 

 nook on to my open book a dark banded speck of 

 burnished gold ; I took it for a Liihocolletis messaniella 

 that had lasted out the blackberry season, though as 

 I did not catch it, the supposed moth may have been 

 a hemiptera, or something else rare and beautiful, 

 imported from abroad by mischance ; it made me 

 think of the Isle of France, and Paul and Virginia, 



and that is why I say so. At times I have been in- 

 clined to attribute this singularly late activity of 

 insect life to that higher M'inter temperature that 

 Professor Balfour Stewart has led us to associate with 

 the notion of a maximum in the sun spots, but then I 

 remember in 1876, when very opposite conditions 

 prevailed, how, when strolling one calm December 

 morning, past the spot where Louis Philippe and his 

 ladies disembarked on the Calais jetty, I there found the 

 wooden rails quite covered with blow-flies, sand flies, 

 their orange stercorarious relatives, with a fair sprink- 

 ling of Tipularice, and how on arriving in England the 

 same year, the begrimed Geotrupi in this locality were 

 all out of their subterranean hibernaculi on the i6th 

 of December last, at which date I observed one to 

 fly to light.— ^. If. S-ivinhvi. 



Notes on the collecting of Crustacea. — 

 A systematic working of these animals on various 

 parts of our coasts would no doubt result in some 

 very valuable information regarding their distribution, 

 even in so limited an area as these islands ; for I hope 

 to show in some future notes how extremely local 

 and how limited in distribution some so-called " rare " 

 species are. Considering how easily and with what 

 interest these animals can be collected and preserved, 

 it is to be hoped that many of our natural history 

 workers who are conveniently situated, viz. on our 

 coasts, may give the subject some of their attention. 

 In rocky localities, a first-rate trap may be devised 

 out of a hamper or a box ; the latter should have wire 

 gauze let into large holes cut in the sides. The open 

 top should be finished on the principle of a lobster 

 pot, so as to make ingress easy and egress difficult or 

 impossible. These traps must be weighted with stones, 

 or by other means, and lowered into sheltered rocky 

 nooks duly baited. As regards the question of bait 

 it is, I have found, very difticult to induce a fisherman 

 to try anything he is unaccustomed to, but I should 

 be inclined to think that there are more killing baits 

 than pieces of fish ; for instance, in the capture of the 

 freshwater craw-fish [Aslaciis Jluviatilis) I have used 

 bullock's liver, which certainly is as unnatural a food 

 to them as to marine Crustacea, and the results 

 were, avtcris paribus, always good, for often I have 

 pulled up a net with a perfect heap of craw-fish 

 struggling to get at the bait ; from this I should 

 imagine that such a bait would repay a trial in the 

 collection of Crustacea on our shores. There is no 

 doubt that many good things are constantly caught 

 and thrown away as rubbish by fishermen, particulaily 

 trawlers and dredgers, and it would be a great advan- 

 tage to enlist the services of such men, selecting the 

 most intelligent, and showing them, from specimens, 

 what would be worth putting aside. I should be very 

 glad to exchange notes with, or give information to, 

 any seaside dweller who may be desirous of forming a 

 collection of these interesting {ovms.—Edii'ard Lovct/, 

 Holly Mount, Croydon. 



