28 [July, 



inches : this is, I think, a species of Oolofa. It was not rare, sitting on grass-stems 

 and foliage, and flying at sunset like a cockchafer. A fine large species of Trox is 

 also perhaps noteworthy : and while speaking of the Callao insects, I must not for- 

 get to mention the too-well-known Chigoe or "Jigger" fSarcopsylla penetransj, a 

 most minute flea which abounds in the dust, and (the ? , at least) burrows under 

 one's toe-nails whenever it can get a chance. I had three or four extracted from 

 my feet, the insect becoming distended with eggs to the size of a small pea, and 

 producing a curious tickling or itching sensation, which (whatever some authors may 

 affirm to the contrary) is the reverse of pleasant. Another of the many disagree- 

 ables of Callao is a phenomenon locally known as the " Painter," which is peculiar 

 to this and one or two other Peruvian ports. The water in the harbour suddenly 

 assumes a curious opaque milky-white colour, and emits a most horrible odour of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen with a dash of rotten fish. This delightful phenomenon 

 occurs, on an average, every four or five days in December and January, and seldom 

 lasts less than twenty-four hours : the white paint on the boats, &c., being utterly 

 spoiled by the action of the sulphuretted hydrogen, and turned quite black. I have 

 an idea it is caused by some disturbance of the bottom, such as a sliglit earthquake- 

 sliock, as the mud emits exactly the same smell, and is full of diatoms and other 

 organic bodies, but it is curious that it should be confined to so short a period of the 

 year. 



At the end of December, we had a cruise to the southward as far as Mollendo, 

 a small port 400 miles fi'om Callao. , I had but one opportunity of landing here, on 

 December 26th : the country is miserably barren, and covered with drifts of white 

 volcanic ashes, said to have come from the great Misti volcano behind Arequipa, 

 some 70 miles distant. Water is brought in pipes from the mountains, and a few 

 vegetables, &c., raised by irrigation. I found two or three ordinary Callao Lepido- 

 ptera in great numbers, as well as numerous larvae of the fine hawk-moth Sphinx 

 5-maculata, feeding on all sorts of wild and cultivated Solanacete. — James J. 

 Walkeb, H. M. S. " Kingfisher," Callao, Peru : 6th February, 1882. 



Voluntary submergence hy the female of Phryganea. — Referring to Mr. J. J. 

 King's observations recorded in last month's Ent. Mo. Mag., on tlie curious 

 behaviour of a $ Phryganea obsoleta, it may interest you to know that a some- 

 what similar proceeding on the part of a $ Phryganea striata has come under my 

 notice. At a pond near this place I saw the insect in question several times get 

 partially under the water ; and once near the margin, where the depth was only 3 or 

 4 inches, it walked down a grass stem to the bottom where it remained for a minute 

 or so. While submerged it appeared to me to be making an efi'ort to get quit of 

 the large egg-mass which it carried, by dragging its abdomen over the grass-stem. 

 It appeared quite at home on the surface of the water, as it crossed the pond, which 

 is nearly 20 yards broad, several times, attended by some half-dozen sticklebacks. — 

 K. J. Morton, High Street, Carluke, N.B. : nth June, 1882. 



[Messrs. King and Morton's interesting observations entirely confirm those 

 made by Mr. Hyndman, at Belfast, in 1833 (first quoted in Curtis's "British 

 Entomology"). I have more than once seen the ? on the surface of the water 

 as noticed by Mr. Morton, but never succeeded in observing it descend beneath the 

 surface.— R. McL.^cui.an] 



