WB Zoological Collections. Invertebrata. 



it is placed. The red cabbage bug, Pentatcma omata, Latr. which destroys 

 this plant, is distinguished by its eggs, constantly twelve in number, being 

 deposited alternately on two parallel lines, one of the extremities of which 

 passes beyond the other. The female of the gray Peniatoma lays globular eggs, 

 of a golden green colour, collected into a mass, and about thirteen in number ; 

 the cover being raised by the exit of the little one, discloses in the interior a 

 partition in the form of the letter T. There are sometimes found on the 

 leaves of plants brilliant eggs, isolated, or two together, placed by the side 

 of each other, shining, ovoid, and dotted (when examined by the microscope,) 

 froni which the author has seen the larva of a bug, the species of which he 

 could not determine, come out. The eggs of the Aphides are known 

 by their black colour, and their accumulation on buds. Those of the 

 Aleyrodes Chelidoiiii are distinguished by the white layer on which they are 

 placed. Those of the green Cassida are covered by a brownish membrane. 

 The eggs of the Nepa are placed together by their ends, and terminated by 

 two threads. Those of the Hemerohius perla, supported on a long filament, 

 have been taken for a cryptogamous plant. Those of the Hemerohius 

 lutarius, Linn, are found in the month of May in brown plates on aquatic 

 plants. Those of the Aslcaaphce are white, and applied in two lines upon 

 the stalks of vegetables. Those of the yellow Ichneumon, Ophion luteusy 

 adhere to the bodies of caterpillars by means of a long and very slender 

 pedicle. The eggs of the Culex are agglomerated in the form of a boat. 

 Those of the Aranea diadema are disposed in a ball, surrounded by a silken 

 tissue ; a disposition which is also remarked in the eggs of several other 

 species. The Theridion benignum has its eggs collected in a silken lenticular 

 envelope, of a shining white. The ova of the Tenthredo, deposited on the 

 leaves, or on the young sprouts of vegetables, under the epidermis of which 

 the female insinuates them, have the property of increasing in size after 

 ••*%hey have been laid.— Bull, des Sci. Nat. Sept. 1830. 



'"^^^ Luminosity of the Ocean. — An extract was read from a letter addressed 

 by Daniel Sharpe, Esq., to Mr Bennett, in which the writer describes the 

 luminous appearance of the ocean as observed by him on several nights 

 during his passage to Lisbon. A considerable sparkling was visible in the 

 water close under the vessel's side, particularly in the spray just thrown 

 off from the bow, and also occasionally when a wave broke ; it gradually 

 'Vanished as the water became quieter. The appearance was that of a 



^^^liwmber of small sparks not brighter than the smallest stars. When a 

 bucket full of the water was taken up, nothing was visible until it was 

 stirred or shaken, when it was instantly filled with spangles, which disap- 

 peared as the water settled : the most elegant effect was when the waves or 

 spray broke over the deck, which then became covered with stars for a few 

 minutes. Mr Sharpe states that he collected a great quantity in a glass, and 

 examined them carefully with a microscope the next morning, in the expec- 

 tation of observing minute Crustacea, &c. to which the appearance he 

 describes has frequently been attributed. He could, however, detect 

 nothing but an abundance of small fibres and shreds of, apparently, animal 

 matter, and did not find even one entire animal. Hence he is disposed to 

 infer, that, in some instances at least, the phosporescence of the sea arises 

 from the quantity of particles of dead fishes, &c. always floating on its 

 surface ; although he confesses himself unable to explain the reason why 

 these shine only when the water is disturbed. 



It was remarked that Commerson and others have attributed the pheno- 

 menon described to the putrefaction of animal matters : and M. Bory de 

 St Vincent has declared that marine animalcula take no share in it. Sir 

 Joseph Banks, Dr Macartney, and others, on the contrary, have referred it 

 to the presence of marine animals, principally Crustacea; and the existence 

 of such, as the cause of this appearance, has been recently insisted on by 



