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ENTOMOLOGY. 



appearance in a most satisfactory manner. The "shower" in the present case 

 was that of larvae, which M. Waga, who saw them, recognised as those of 

 one of the Coleoptera — Cantharis fusca, of Linnaeus. They were found in 

 great numbers crawling upon the snow, or congealed in the ice, on the 20th. 

 of January. There had been severe weather, followed by a rise of the tem- 

 perature, with rain, and then frost again on the night of the 19th. The 

 people believed they had fallen with the rain. M. Waga cites four instances 

 of similar phenomena having occurred, at Leufsta, in Sweden, in January, 

 1749; at Anspach, January 14th., 1806; at Noethen, on the Rhine, January 

 30th., 1847; and at Prosopow, in Lithuania, on the 24th. of January, 1849. 

 In all these instances the larvae were those of C. fusca, and the period, 

 within fourteen days the same. Supposing these phenomena to have been 

 produced by a water-spout, the only explanation possible, had they fallen with 

 the rain, we have, as M. Waga remarks, the extraordinary coincidence of five 

 water-spouts occurring in the latter half of the month of January, each time 

 finding a swarm of larva? ready to be transported. According to the new 

 and generally received theory of Peltier, these water-spouts are produced by 

 the junction of two opposite electric conditions — negative in the atmosphere, 

 and positive in the earth — which conditions only occur during great heat. 

 Besides it is self-evident, that if the larvae had been transported by a water- 

 spout, their appearance above ground in the middle of winter has still to be 

 accounted for, as they do not, like the snow insects Podura nivalis, make 

 their appearance at that time as a natural law. The explanation given by 

 M. Waga is simply this: — The larvae of C. fusca hybernate, but do not 

 bury in the ground. In the autumn they feed among dead leaves and 

 herbage, principally upon spiders, and they go to their winter rest in those 

 localities, being provided by nature with a velvety coat, which protects them 

 equally from severe cold and excessive wet. When the temperature suddenly 

 rose, as it did on this 19th. of January, they were roused from their torpidity, 

 and crawled out upon the snow, where they were again caught by the frost 

 of the succeeding night, which either congealed them in the ice, or prevented 

 them getting back to their dead leaves, before they were discovered by the 

 good people of Warsaw. — Ed. 



Synia musculosa. — On the 10th. of August I had the good fortune to capture 

 a female specimen of the above rare and beautiful insect; a friend with me 

 the same evening took two others, male and female; the same friend a few 

 days before took a female specimen of Pier is daplidice; another person here 

 on the 5th. instant also took this insect, which I saw alive. — T. Thobncboft, 

 Brighton, August 18th., 1858. 



N. senex. — I was not acquainted with the habits of this little insect till the 

 other day. Happening to go down one evening (July 14th.) to a marsh near 

 here, I noticed a small pale moth, which I took to be a Crambus, flying 

 over the tops of the rushes at twilight. I at once caught it, and found it 

 to be N. senex. On that and two or three other evenings, I took twenty or 

 thirty. The female seems to be sluggish, for I only took two. — H. H. Ceewe, 

 Stowmarket, August 9th., 1858. 



