414 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a tug or two, as if about to detach a piece of it to use as an 

 article of clothing, but instead of this it made a meal of about 

 half of it; it then put on the twelfth and thirteenth pieces, 

 when the rest of the skin being exposed, it made another 

 meal. The fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth pieces were 

 then fixed on, and the larva composed itself to rest, having 

 been an hour and forty minutes at work. — [Rev.] P. H. 

 Jennings; Long field Rectory, Gravesend, May 17, 1873. 



Floods and Hyhernatiny Larv(B. — Continued dampness is, 

 as most of us know, not beneficial to larvae which hybernate, 

 for in the case of B. Rubi, &c., such a state of affairs is pro- 

 ductive of a white fungoid growth upon the body of the 

 larva, which is almost certain eventually to cause death. But 

 are floods equally injurious? and do they always cause the 

 death of such larva; as are fully and unalterably exposed to 

 their influence ? If such is the case I much fear the stock of 

 insects will be very limited during the forthcoming season. 

 A flood of short duration does not, I think, affect larva; to a 

 very great extent, as 1 have known instances in previous 

 winters in which a certain bank — where larva; of Dominula, 

 Caja, &c., are almost sure to be found after hybernation — has 

 been partially flooded, and yet in the spring I have found 

 larvae in abundance ; such, however, is not the case this 

 season, for the bank has been overflowed for some six or 

 eight weeks consecutively during the winter, and a visit of a 

 few days since revealed the comfrey, &c., in abundance, but 

 no larvae were to be seen. I am inclined to suppose that 

 sometimes when the bank was but partly covered with water 

 the hybernating larvae, feeling the inundation, came out from 

 their hiding-places, and were borne about upon the water 

 until drifted to a higher level, when they took advantage of the 

 shelter afforded by the uncovered portions. The spiny larvae 

 of Dominula I have often found in the spring, floating upon 

 the surface of the water in ditches, by the side of which their 

 food-plants grow ; but I quite believe it was always by acci- 

 dent, never from choice, that such a situation was gained. 

 That some larvae possess an extraordinary amount of vitality 

 when immersed is well known. In 1870 a boy brought two 

 nearly full-fed larvae of C. Elpenor to my home, and supposing 

 they were leeches he had put them into a bottle of ivater to 

 convey them more safely, and as he thought humanely. In this 



