THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 151 



present unable to determine. Whilst making the above 

 experinients, by the aid of a microscope, I discovered a 

 number of parasites infesting the stomachs of many of the 

 larvae. When full-grown they were cylindrical in shape, 

 white in coloin*, and had a cellular appearance. They evi- 

 dently propagated by offshoots, as man^ had the young 

 attached to them in different stages of growth. At first these 

 were hemispherical ; when more advanced, spherical. In 

 the half-grown larva? they were confined to the stomach, but 

 in the more matured they occupied the whole of the intes- 

 tines by hundreds. On many of the larvge, which were 

 suffering from diarrhoea, I found them in immense numbers, 

 and the partially digested food in a state of fermentation. I 

 have during the past summer lost at least nine-tenths of the 

 larvae of Clielonia caj;i, C- villica, Liparis chrysorrhoea and 

 others, from this disorder; for instead of entering the pupa 

 stale they became mere bags of water. But perhaps the 

 most curious part of the matter was that many of those that 

 did become pujiae, instead of producing iniagos, gave birth to 

 a large crop of fungus, exactly resembling in appearance that 

 figured by you in the ' Entomologist ;' with this exception 

 the tops of the upright shoots were light orange-coloured. 

 Are these parasites of animal or vegetable origin, and are 

 they identical with those known to infest the higher order of 

 animals ? — H. Moiicreaff ; Soiiihsen, September, 1866. 



Lithosln caiiiola in Ireland. — Being desirous of comparing 

 Irish specimens of Lithosia caniola with English ones in my 

 collection, I went to Howth on the 20lh of August, making 

 the 'Royal Hotel' there my head-quarters. After a inght 

 royal breakfast I set out to find caniola at home, taking the 

 road by Badscallan to the Barley Lighthouse, a distance of 

 about two miles : I descended the slopes to the cliffs on the 

 Dublin Bay side of the Hill, or rather Hills, of Howth ; and 

 here, opposite the open Irish Sea, exposed to the full force 

 of every storm from that quarter, without a shrub or a bush 

 to shelter it (except here and there a few gorse), this fragile 

 thing lives, and is evident!}' happy. 1 took it along the 

 shore close to tide-mark, and upon the green slopes up to 

 the table-land above, flying at dusk : by beating gorse- 

 bushes and ragwort in the fields during the day I also 

 secured a few specimens. The most productive place was 



