28 



THE NATURALIST. 



the spring of the year. The buds 

 of the oak serve as a home for 

 another species. These are crippled 

 and made to assume the appearance 

 of a little artichoke, and in the 

 centre of the overlapping scales is a 

 small pear-shaped nut, which is 

 tenanted by five or six larva, each 

 in its own honeycomb-like cell. 

 The last gall-fly I have to mention 

 attacks the catkins of the oak, 

 causing the flower-stalk to be covered 

 with little balls that look like half- 

 ripe red currants. These, when the 

 galls are numerous, have a very 

 pretty appearance. — P. Inchbald, 

 Storthes Hall, May 2, 1864. 



Clostera anaclioreta. — This species 

 is now appearing in my breeding 

 cages ; the recent warm weather 

 having doubtless accelerated its ap- 

 pearance. It is a very prolific 

 species, and easily bred where its 

 food i^lant (Dwarf Sallow) can be 

 obtained. A fact which goes far to 

 prove that in a few years time, it 

 will be numbered with our common 

 species.— William Pokteus, Halifax, 

 April 22nd, 1864. 



Hyhridism — On Wednesday night 

 I observed a male specimen of Clos- 

 tera anaclioreta with a female of C. 

 cur tula — six eggs have been deposited 

 and I trust more will follow. If 

 they are fruitful I will record the 

 result in the " Naturalist." — Wm. 

 PoETEus, 17, Dean-street, Pellon- 

 lane, Halifax. May 6th, 1864. 



Ateuchus. — A. L. asks if any of 

 the readers of** The Naturalist" can 

 inform him why the Ateuchus is 

 called the ''Sacred Beetle." The 

 following from ''Westwood's Classi- 

 fication of Insects," vol. 1, page 

 206, will perhaps answer his ques- 

 tion. 



" The type of this family is the 

 renowned Sacred Beetle of the 

 Egyptians, of which so many models, 

 carvings, amulets, &c., are discovered, 

 occasionally of a gigantic size, in 

 sarcophagi, and rolled up in the 

 mummies and other ancient relics of 

 that remarkable people, by whom its 

 appearance, in great numbers, on the 

 sandy margins of the Nile, after the 

 annual rising and falling of the 

 river, together with its extraordinary 

 motions whilst rolling along its little 

 globular balls of dung, were re- 

 garded as mystically representing 

 the resurrection of the soul, the 

 motions of the earth and sun, &c. 

 Latreille, who has published a 

 memoir upon these Sacred beetles 

 in the fifth volume of the Mem. du 

 Museum, translated by Benett, in the 

 first volume oiihe ZoologicalJournal, 

 and in the Appendix to the Voyage 

 to Meroe of M. Caillaud, in Sennari, 

 where their first settlements were 

 established. Mouffet, with his usual 

 cumbrous loquacity, has given a long 

 account of these insects and their 

 supposed virtues. It was also re- 



