THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 209 



food-plant can be given, and where a daily supply can be 

 had, rendering it unnecessaiy to place these in water, for 

 many larvee are apt to thrive badly on twigs so supported, 

 and I think a daily turn-out, and a fresh supply of food is 

 more healthful; in very hot weather it may be needful to 

 renew the food twice a day. But I find one drawback, which 

 I have not succeeded in removing, and which is particularly 

 operative in the spring and autumn : larvae are liable to crawl 

 occasionally on the earthenware sides of the pots, and as 

 these get cold they seem to chill the feet and claspers of 

 young larvjE, and produce a species of cramp, or perhaps it 

 may be a rheumatic ailment. Lining the pots with paper 

 does not answer very well. Perhaps some other entomologists 

 have noticed this annoyance, and devised a remedy. The 

 rearer of larvse cannot be too watchful for the appearance of 

 several of the moths of the genus Tinea in his breeding- 

 house; it is not sufficient merely to exclude the images from 

 boxes and cages : guided by instinct, they deposit eggs on 

 the gauze or zinc, and the larvae, dropping through, prey 

 upon the pupce that may be below; should there be none, 

 they will devour moss. I will not say that, in lack of other 

 food, they may not even cat earth, like niggers of certain 

 races, often discoursed upon by travellers. — J. R. S. Clifford. 



Emelesia unifasciata at Chellenham. — I took four speci- 

 mens of Unifasciata here on the lS>th. I think it is new to 

 this district. — W. C. Marshall ; 8, Spa Buildinys, C/ielten- 

 hani, August 22, 1874. 



Death through the Sting oj a Hornet. — The deputy 

 coroner for the Reading division of Berkshire has held an 

 inquest at Mortimer, a village near Reading, touching the 

 death, under extraordinary circumstances, of Mrs. Sarah 

 Merrett, a labourer's wife. Deceased was standing in the 

 road near her house, when a hornet flew out from a nest in 

 the bank and stung her on the right side of her neck. She 

 went indoors, and a neighbour bathed her neck with water 

 and vinegar. However, she fainted almost immediately, and 

 expired in a few minutes, before a medical man could reach 

 the house. Mr. G. H. Davis, surgeon, stated at the inquest 

 that he knew Mrs. Merrett as a nervous, excitable woman, 

 and he believed the immediate cause of her death was 

 syncope, the result of a nervous shock caused by the sting of 



2e 



