332 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
mens: they may be sent safely in a glass tube. The fact of 
such insects being destructive to rape and turnips is quite new 
to me, and is very interesting. 
Shower of Insects at Bath.—Your article in the ‘ Entomo- 
logist’ for last month brought to my mind one by the Hon. 
Mrs. Ward, published in the ‘ Intellectual Observer’ in 1864 : 
it occurs in vol. v. p. 13. Mrs. Ward observes: —“ On the 
20th August I received from a friend a little box containing 
a pale jelly-like substance, and a paper containing about 
thirty black grains, at first sight resembling dry tea. The 
information my friend sent with them was, ‘that they were 
found on the deck of his yacht, the vessel being moored, as 
usual, at some distance from land in an inlet of Lough Ree, 
county Westmeath. * * * I wrote to ask a few questions 
concerning the jelly and black grains, and ascertained the 
following particulars :—‘ The boatman, whose duty it was to 
scour the deck each morning, was repeatedly annoyed by 
finding spots of jelly lying on the deck, &c. He at first 
thought he had taken it up when wetting the deck with 
water taken from the lake; but when the weather became so 
rainy as to make this artificial wetting unnecessary, he still 
found them.” * * * Having now detailed the antecedents 
of the jelly, I proceed to the second part of my story. J left 
the jelly for five days in a tumbler (of water), out of sight, and, 
I believe, to a certain extent, out of mind also; and the small 
portion of that with brown particles, which I had last examined 
with the microscope, remained still in the animalcule cage, 
slightly flattened between its two disks of glass. On placing 
the animalcule cage under the microscope, on August 25th, I 
saw with sudden surprise that several singular-looking larvee 
had made their appearance among the jelly. That they had 
been produced from the brown particles was evident, as 
many empty shells were visible, and other similar larve 
could be discerned ready to come out of the particles, or 
eggs as they may in future be called. * * * Tatonce 
recognised their forms as familiar to me. A similar insect, 
with its strange seal-like head and tiny pairs of feet, seal-like 
also, had often thrust itself across the field of view—a giant 
among pigmies—while I have been examining minute 
animalcules with one of the higher powers of the micro- 
scope. ‘he larve appeared perpetually struggling to free 
