NOTES ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. I45 



in time to see a frog hopping away. Lampynts notiluca was not to be found' 

 and she was presumably down froggy's gullet ! We have not seen the glow- 

 worm in the fortst for many years. About 1879-82, they were very common 

 at Buckhurst Hill, but since the latter year not a specimen has been seen by 

 me until that solitary one occurred as above mentioned. I am disposed to 

 attribute the disappearance of this very interesting beetle to the increase of 

 snail-devouring birds. Snails are certainly getting scarcer in the open year by 

 year, and with them diminish the glow-worms which subsist upon the 

 molluscs. I should be glad to know from collectors w^hether Lampyrus is now 

 rare in other places around _ London, Years ago the males were plentiful 

 enough with us in the Kentish, Surrey and Essex woods, dashing at night 

 against our entomological lanterns, whilst the females often glistened by 

 scores on the grassy banks — a charming and poetical sight. — W. Cole, 

 Buckhurst Hill, November, 1899. 



CRUSTACEA. 



The " Well-Shrimp " {Niphaigtis) in East Anglia. — In connection with 

 the Rev. T. K. R. Stebbing's address at the Conference of Local Scientific 

 Societies at Dover (ante p 70), it may be interesting to refer to a paper by 

 Dr. Sidney F. Harnier, F.R.S.. in the current part of the Transactions of the 

 Noi'folk and Norii'ich Naturalists' Society {vo\. vi., p. 489), recording the occur- 

 rence oi Niphargus aquilex, Schiodte, at Cringleford, near Norwich. Nip/iargiis 

 is a small Amphipod Crustacean, with rudimentary e3es, and is interesting. Dr. 

 Harmer says, as being a typical member of the Cavernicolous fauna. It can 

 readily be distinguished from Gammanis pnlex, the common " Freshwater 

 Shrimp," by its colourless, semi-transparent appearance, and by the slender- 

 ness of its form. Three species are recognised as British by Spence Bate and 

 Westwood (History of the British Sessile-eved Crustacea, vol. i. (1863), pp. 311— 

 325), viz., N. kochianus, N. fontanus, and N. aquilex. Dr. Harmer gives many 

 details of distribution of members of the genus, and alludes to the very 

 complete summary of the literature of the Amphipoda, including papers on 

 Niphargus, given by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, in the Challenger Reports 

 (vol. xxix., pt. Ixvii., 1888). We hope that some of our observers will search 

 for this interesting Crustacean (together with the well-worm, Phreoryctes, ante, 

 p. i), in suitable localities in Essex It is probably a common form, if well 

 looked for. Mr. Stebbing informs us that an old lad}' had lately told him 

 that she was familiar with the Well-shrimp at Norwich in her youth. 

 Dr. Harmer suggests that the device employed by Prof. Herdman in the 

 examination of the surface fauua of the ocean (Brit. Ass. Rep., 1897, p. 695), 

 viz., by tying a muslin bag over the taps through which the water may be 

 pumped, or is flowing, may lead to the detection of the shrimp. NiphargushSiS 

 been recorded from several southern English counties, and from many Conti- 

 nental localities. — Ed. 



MOLLUSC A. 



Mollusca in the Old Bed of the Lea River.— The Rev. J. W. Horsley, 

 St. Peter's Rectory, Walworth, has communicated to Science Gossip (vol. vi., 

 N.S., 18)) some interesting notes on the Mollusca observed in the old bed of 

 the river Lea, near Park Station, Tottenham, during a recent excursion of the 

 Conchological Society. The observations, he remarks, showed what "a 



