Miscellaneous. 135 



/ro ,^^om•t^<S\Ma«^fc MISCELLANEOUS. ^ft iiii^i^rjw^ 



.^40 ^«^^%ORIXA STRIATA, CURTIS. Z 



At the meeting of the British Association in Cambridge, Mr. R. Ball 

 brought under the notice of the Zoological Section the fact, that the 

 Corixa striata produced loud sounds while immersed in water : tJie 

 following is a note since obtained by Mr. Ball from the original ob- 

 server, which it is trusted will induce those who doubted the accuracy 

 of the observation to experiment and satisfy themselves : — 



" At Glasnevin,on the 27th of April 1840, found some of C. striata ; 

 kept them alive in a bed-room basin for six weeks ; frequently heard 

 a noise, and on watching attentively saw one of them stretch its 

 hind-legs straight out from its body and remain quite still, resting 

 with its middle legs on a bit of Utricularia at the bottom of the 

 basin ; it then moved the fore-legs rapidly in front of its head and 

 gave three brisk little chirps ; very often after the chirps it made a 

 noise something like grinding a knife, only very much fainter and 

 softer ; while doing so it moved its body rapidly from side to side, 

 still keeping the hind-legs stretched out. It very often iriade the 

 chirps alone ; but not the grinding noise, I think, without the chirps, 

 either before or after (mostly before). The sound may be often 

 heard during the day ; the evening seems its favourite time, and 

 frequently during the stillness of night, just before the day begins 

 to break, I have often heard it keeping it up for a long time ; still it 

 is very uncertain, as it may often be watched for a long time with- 

 out hearing it. Noise disturbs it very much, as it at once will stop 

 on the slightest. Often on placing a candle near it, and remaining 

 perfectly still, it has made the sound very merrily : the chirps could 

 be heard distinctly in the next room by leaving the doors open, and 

 the other noise at the far end of the room that it was in ; of course, 

 by listening attentively. The longest time that both noises lasted was 

 while twenty was counted very fast, though it may be often repeated. 

 Corixa is a very pretty insect in the water ; it has the appearance as 

 if its head, thorax, and a stripe on each side (and I believe the under- 

 part of its body) was of the purest silvery-light, which has a very 

 pretty effect when kept in a glass vessel, when held to the light, to 

 see it swimming quickly. It catches very rapidly with its fore-legs 

 those little animalculse (which abound in water that is kept for 

 some time), by rooting very eagerly at the bottom of the vessel 

 amongst the mud and bits of plants. It lays its eggs on Utricularia 

 in June ; they are small and white, fixed singly at a little distance 

 from each other on the leaves, and are hatched in about eighteen 

 days, and swim very nimbly. Two of the Corixa had a curious red 

 parasite on the upper part of the body under the wings, and one 

 had a Gordius or Filaria. From May to the middle of June is 

 the best time for hearing them. We got some Corixa the last week 

 in September 1845, two of them lived until the 26th of November; 

 during the first three weeks of their confinement they sometimes 

 made a very faint noise, but not near so frequent or so.jBWfiiiZeas^they 

 make it in early summer. -».|?: Uvlb «wJ*Wf> ' 



