X42 LNovember, 



is a long pedancle bearing an acorn and another artichoke gall, the latter being at 

 its summit. I have another specimen, in which one of the round woody galls of 

 Cynips Kollari {lignicola), aud one of tho leafy galls of Cynips q.-yeiunuc, stand 

 close together. I have also a specimen which beautifully shows the wonderful 

 difference of effect which punctures made by different species of gall-fly have, not 

 only upon the same plant, but also upon the same part of it. On a twig of oak, all 

 closely adjoining, are two of the soft spongy galls known as " oak apples," and two 

 of tho hard round woody galls of Cynijps Kollari. The two pairs stand at right 

 angles to each other, each gall being opposite its fellow of the same kind. The 

 " woolly gall " of the oak, formed by Cynips q.-ramuli, is common here in early 

 summer ; and if that is what Mr. Armistead means by " the cottony gall of the 

 oak," I shall have much pleasure in sending him specimens next summer. — W. S. 

 M. D'Urtjan, Newport, near Exeter, Se]ptember, 1865. 



Wasps in 1865. — It may be interesting to mention that when in Sherwood 

 Forest, Nottinghamshire, in August, I saw wasps in abundance. I think I trod 

 on seventeen in one pear. Here, however, in Gloucestershire there are none. The 

 females in the spring were more numerous than I ever saw them, yet I have found 

 no nest, where, in other years, I often found from twenty to thirty. Past experience 

 makes mo think that the dry weather prevented the females, either from forming 

 the nests at all, or from progressing with them if formed. In Nottinghamshire 

 the sand would would form no obstruction compared with our dry and hard clay. 

 One hanging nest in our yard became minus all its inmates directly after the first 

 brood was hatched,— Rev. E. Hallett Todd, Windrush, Burford, October, 1865. 



Immense swa/rms of Aphides in Scotland. — I send you for inspection some 

 specimens of a small four-winged insect, the name of which I do not know, but 

 which has been a perfect pest for the last mouth, not only in this neighbourhood, 

 but also in other parts of Scotland. They generally appear in greatest force about 

 5 o'clock in the afternoou, and in such numbers, that one cannot walk along some 

 of the streets in the suburbs, especially in the southern district, without having to 

 encounter swarms of thorn. They render one very uncomfortable by their numbers, 

 especially when they get into one's mouth or eyes. The fu'st time I saw them was 

 in the middle of last month, when I happened to be passing through Elgin. I could 

 hardly get along the street for them. On the east coast, also at Prostonpans and 

 neighbourhood, and south again at Peebles, they have occurred in myriads. To-day, 

 however, they seem to be decreasing, probably owing to the change in the tem- 

 perature, the thermometer having fallen to 50°. — James Haswell, M.A., Edinburgh, 

 7th October, 1865. 



[The insects are a small black Aphis, species of which have not unfrequently 

 been recorded as appearing in immense numbers. We beUeve that this is one of the 

 so-called " cholera flies," their appearance having been, by some kind of super- 

 stition, considered as precursory to the visitation of that scourge. — Eds.] 



Case of extraordinary virulence in the bite of Stomoxys calcitrans. — Some weeks 

 ago, a respectable veterinary surgeon of our village mentioned to me that he had 

 several cows under his care which were suffering from the bites of flies. I showed 

 him a sot specimen of Stomoxys calcitrans, Linn., which he at once pronounced to 





