298 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
tions in Natural History’ (p. 275), published in 1846. In 
reference to the occurrence of this fly in King’s College 
Lodge in September last, Prof. Westwood ‘ thought it was 
with a view to hybernation.’ This in itself seems not impro- 
bable; but the remarkable thing is, in this case, that the 
same house, if not the same room, should have been selected 
by this species of insect for the above purpose over a period 
of nearly forty years, during which time there must have been 
a succession of many generations. On the occasion of the 
swarms in 1831, it was about the 17th of September, so far as 
could be remembered, that these insects first showed them- 
selves; and it was thought that they had entered the room 
very early in the morning, by a window looking due north, 
which had been open during part of the night, having been 
first observed between 8 and 9 a.m.” 
Pollen-mass of an Orchid on the Eye of a Dipteron.—Mr. 
Verrall exhibited a dipterous insect, Pipiza noctiluca, taken 
by himself at Rannoch, to the head of which was adhering a 
foreign substance, apparently a fungoid growth. Several 
members dissented from this explanation of the nature of the 
substance in question, and thought it was probably the 
pollen-mass of an orchid. 
Gall on the leaves of a Carex.—My. Miiller exhibited a 
gall on a species of a Carex, concerning which he read the 
following notes:—‘“ The present Lord Walsingham kindly 
sent to me, in the middle of September last, a growing plant 
of an undetermined species of Carex, collected near Thetford, 
in Norfolk, pointing out to me at the same time some curious 
galls on its leaves) They may be described as oblong, of the 
size of a grain of wheat, and as attached longitudinally to the 
blades of the Carex, sometimes in groups. When fresh they 
were of a paler green than the plant itself; in their present 
dry state they are coffee-brown, and remind one vividly, by 
size and colour, of the brown cocoons of certain Nemati. 
But this resemblance is only superficial; they form part and 
parcel of the plant, and derive, in their fresh state, their sap 
direct from its tissues. ‘They are monothalamous. I potted 
the plant immediately on arrival, but, notwithstanding my 
constant attention, I have failed to rear the maker of these 
excrescences, so | record my observations so far, in the hope 
that other naturalists will be luckier than myself.” 
