66 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Larval Reproduction in Insects. — ' Siebold and Kollilter's 

 Zeitschrifl' for 1863 relates a curious discovery by Pro- 

 fessor N. Wagner of some worm-like insect larvae filled with 

 smaller larva3 of the same kind. Except in the remarkable 

 fact that the mothers are themselves only larvfe, these in- 

 stances resemble the asexual I'eprodiiction of the Aphides. 

 The larvae were obtained from under the bark of elms in 

 Kasan, and appear to belong to some species of Dijjtera. 

 The' Archives des Sciences' remarks, "That amongst the 

 asexual plant-lice the pseudova, or false eggs, are found in 

 an organ which is the homologue of the ovary in the sexual 

 individuals ; whilst in the apodal larvae observed by M. 

 Wagner the pseudova are formed in the fatty body. This 

 organ divides itself into a certain number of lobes, which 

 surround each one with a special membrane." — Intellectual 

 Observer, May, 1864, p. 306. 



[Statements of this kind are annually reproduced to the 

 intense delectation of the wonder-mongers : the larvae are 

 those of one of the Pteromalidae which habitually infests the 

 larvae of Diptera. The existence of larval procreation is 

 neither impossible nor unlikely, but we shall make a fatal 

 mistake if we confound it with the familiar parasitism of the 

 Ichneuraonidae.] 



Early Swarm of Bees. — The fine weather of the month of 

 May seems to have caused the bees to swarm earlier than 

 usual ; and what is more remarkable, on the 19th May, a 

 swarm of these industrious insects fixed upon, for their tem- 

 porary abode, a lamp-post opposite a shop in the market- 

 place where bee-hives are sold ; their owner having purchased 

 one of these rustic straw habitations, with very little trouble 

 transferred them to it. — J. Walton ; Knareshorough, June 4. 



Forty Thousand Pounds^ worth of Bntterjlies. — In the 

 canton of Basle not less than 1'2,000,000 butterflies have 

 been caught this year, and the Government has paid the 

 catchers the not inconsiderable sum of l,000,000f. Natu- 

 ralists tell us that of ever}^ hundred of these beautiful insects, 

 forty-five are females ; and as each of the latter is estimated 

 to lay, on the average, forty fruitful eggs, the destruction of 

 these 12,000,000 is virtually the same as the annihilation of 

 216,000,000 caterpillars.— Drt?/// News. 



