NOTES. 183 
may have a similar commensal. I examined three nests 
with negative results. In the bungalow where I am staying 
branches covered with these webs are placed in vases about the 
rooms with a view to the destruction of flies and mosquitoes. The 
spiders seem content in their new locality and have extended 
their web, but experience did not lead me to consider that they 
were efficient protectors. Mosquitoes at any rat@ were plenti- 
ful. The commoner species in the bungalow were Mansonia 
uniformis and M. annulifera. Other mosquitoes taken here 
were Anopheles barbirostris and A. fuliginosus, Mucidus scata- 
phagoides, Stegomyia scutellaris, Culex tigripes and C. fatigans, 
Teniorhynchus tenax and T'. ager, and Aideomyia squamipennis. 
Most of the latter were caught at night—in the moth trap. 
The mud walls of the bungalow are tunnelled by a_ small 
Xylocopid bee (X. amethystina). They enter by the natural 
cracks in the rough wall. 
November 8: Found a dung beetle (Coprid) which, besides 
the usual collection of mites, was infested by a number of small 
hairy flies.) They were clinging to the under surface of its thorax 
and abdomen and did not attempt to fly away when the beetle 
was handled, but allowed themselves to be dropped into a tube 
of alcohol together with their host. 
November 10: A large crocodile was seen swimming about 
in the sea, having been washed out of the mouth of the river and 
carried away by the tide. It eventually made its way into the 
Oopah creek. ‘ 
November 12: While standing on the Admiralty pier I noticed 
several small shoals of the curious ‘‘ Bat fish ” (Platax vespertilto). 
They would swim in the vertical position for a time, and then all 
turn over on their sides and drift along, for a space, before resuming 
the normal position. It had a most weird effect, and at the first 
glance I mistook the sudden increase in apparent size to be a 
distortion effect, due to the ripples in the water.* 
EK. ERNEST GREEN. 

AppitionaL Notr.—Mr. Green writes under date 25th March, 
1907 : “In my last ‘ Notes by the Way’ [Spolia Zeylan., vol. II1., 
1906, p. 219] I mentioned a Muscid fly that captured and apparently 
preyed upon living winged termites. I can now supply its name : 
Ochromyia jejuna, F.” With reference to this matter Professor EK. B. 
Poulton, F.R.S., in his work entitled ‘“‘ Predaceous Insects and their 
Prey,” Part I., in the Trans. Entom. Soc., London, 1906, p. 394, 
makes the following remarks: ‘‘ The Muscine are not admitted 
* When young this fish resembles a dead leaf in its floating movements and 
colour markings, as described in this Journal, vol. II, p. 52.-—Eb. 
