THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



add that no heather, on which C.bipustulatus is taken, grows 

 nearer than about half a mile off, and there only in a small 

 patch on the top of another hill. — W. A. Forbes. 



Dasijpolia Templi. — I am advised to keep Templi larvaj 

 out of doors in an open box i)lanted with Heracleum sphon- 

 dyliura. Is this wise, when they are so likely to be attacked 

 with ichneumons ? Would it not be belter to cover the box 

 with tarlatan ? — Oicen Wilson ; Cwmffrivd^ Carmarthen, 

 April 13, 1874. 



[I would, nevertheless, recommend the larvae being kept in 

 the open air; the chance of the ichneumon of Dasypolia 

 Templi finding the larva of that insect in a state of captivity, 

 as it may be called, is very small. — Edward Newman.^ 



Rose-galls. — In the beginning of April the gall, mentioned 

 in the 'Entomologist' (Entom. vii. p. 94), produced one 

 female specimen of llhodites llosarum and two males of a 

 Callimome. — Francis Walker. 



Humble Bees Fertilizing Gentians. — The closed gentian 

 (Gentiana Andrewsii) has flowers an inch and a quarter or 

 more in length. These inflated, bright blue flowers of late 

 autumn appear to be always in the bud, as they never open. 

 The corolla is twisted up, so as to leave no opening at the 

 top. The flowers are all nearly erect, with two stigmas con- 

 siderably above the five anthers. I see but one way in which 

 it can be fertilized, that is by insects. Several of my students, 

 as well as myself more than two years ago, have often seen 

 humble-bees entering these flowers. They pry into or untwist 

 the opening with their mouth-organs and legs, and then pop 

 into the barrel-shaped cavity, which they just fill. — ^American 

 Naturalist,' vol. viii. p. 180. 



Organs of Hearing in Insects. — At the last meeting of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, Professor A. M. Mayer exhi- 

 bited experimental confirmation of the theorem of Fourier, as 

 applied by him in his propositions relating to the nature of 

 a simple sound, and to the analysis by the ear of a composite 

 sound into its elementary pendulum-vibrations ; and to show 

 experiments elucidating the hypothesis of audition of Helni- 

 holtz. Placing a male mosquito under the microscope, and 

 sounding various notes of tuning-forks in the range of a 

 sound given by the female mosquito, the various fibres of the 

 antenna; of the male mosquito vibrated sympathetically to 



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