$12 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Tipula oleracea.—The offensive-looking grubs, sent by a 
“ Sussex farmer,” are the larve of the common daddy-long- 
legs (Tipula oleracea): they are described as eating the young 
blade of oats just below the surface of the ground. The 
remedy will be found in doing all you possibly can to 
encourage partridges, rooks, starlings and sparrows. I know 
of no artificial remedy so good as this natural one; but lime 
water and water in which walnut-leaves have been boiled 
effect the same object when these can be applied, as on 
small lawns or grass-plots: it is almost impossible to employ 
these remedies on a large scale. 
Shower of Insects at Bath.—-Can you, or any of your 
correspondents, account for the following apparently myste- 
rious occurrence :—On Saturday, April 22nd, during a shower 
of rain myriads of small glutinous globules, corresponding to 
the one | forwarded to you, fell on the platform of the 
Midland Railway Station here: lying on the platform they 
resembled half-melted hailstones; where it was dry they 
seemed to disappear altogether, only leaving behind a grease- 
like spot about the size of a pea. They first appeared 
between 5 and 6 A.M., and by 11 A.M. worms of about half an 
inch in length issued stngly from the globules; but from only 
a comparatively small number of them. A few of the remain- 
ing globules were then gathered up on a piece of paper and 
kept in water; a sample of these I have forwarded for your 
inspection (the small insects having appeared in the water 
after two days had elapsed). On Sunday, April 23rd, 
another downfall occurred, nearly in the same place and 
under precisely similar circumstances. A local naturalist has 
accounted for the phenomenon in this way :—He believes the 
insects to have been the larve of the gnat, cast up from the 
river in a water-spout and borne away by the wind; but, as 
there was nothing of a hurricane at the time, and no one 
observed anything extraordinary, this would seem improbable. 
What are they ; and how came they to be up in the air? In 
order to prevent misapprehension it may be as well to state 
that although I did not actually witness this extraordinary 
occurrence, | saw the insects in very large quantities, just as 
they had been gathered together, a few days after; and that 
the information given above is from numerous and most 
reliable authorities, some of whom actually witnessed the 
