246 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



empty pods, twigs, emptied snail-shells, &c., cast out by the 

 ants. The seeds appeared to be stored inside the nest, as in 

 one that I opened the otlier day I found a large collection. 

 .... The species was a black ant; the formicarium was 

 under ground." The late Mr. Charles Home had observed, 

 in the open plains of India, a similar habit in the species of 

 ants found there. Their pathwajs were often thirty feet in 

 length, and formed by cutting away the grass, &c., as noticed 

 by Dr. White, and the ants were constantly seen carrying 

 full grass seeds into their nests : the quantity of seeds was 

 sometimes so great that five or six handsfull could be 

 collected from one nest. 



Do Galls of Willows ever overhang Water ? — Mr. Albert 

 Midler read the following remarks: — "In a letter I lately 

 received from Mr. Peter Cameron, jun., of Glasgow, the 

 writer asks: 'Have you noticed that the galls on willows 

 overhanging rivers are only on the leaves above the land, 

 very few, if any, being on the leaves over the water ? This is 

 the case in this neighbourhood.' The gall referred to by my 

 correspondent is produced by Nematus Vallisnieri, Hartig. 

 I certainly have seldom, if ever, seen the galls on boughs 

 overhanging water, but the question requires further investi- 

 gation. Baron von Osten Sacken has recorded the same 

 thing of the American plum weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar), 

 which, according to him, avoids trees overhanging water 

 when depositing its eggs. The question of ovipositing insects 

 thus avoiding trees in positions which may be dangerous to 

 their brood has some practical bearing where the conserva- 

 tion of foliage or fruit crops is of importance. I have myself 

 witnessed that certain water-beetles, namely, Dytiscus margi-. 

 nalis and several species of Colymbetes, have dropped down 

 on hothouse frames protected by glass, Tliey made this 

 mistake by taking the glass to be their native element: 

 theirs was an error of sight. Assuming that insects injurious 

 to fruit-trees often discern their positions by sight, it seems 

 worth while to offer the suggestion that the means which 

 attracted the water-beetles might possibly be made use of for 

 keeping away such insects as avoid water, and which might 

 possibly be scared away by any object simulating that 

 element." 



Argas rejiexus. — Prof. Westvvood exhibited living examples 

 of Argas reflexus, from Canterbury Cathedral, of which he 



