128 Eleanor A. Ormerod's ohscrvatioiis 



of only thirty-two degrees and a fraction, at one foot 

 below the surface. In other Avords, the air temperature 

 was much below freezing-point for a large proportion of 

 the time, and the soil frost-bound for nearly a foot down, 

 its condition being made worse for animal life by the occa- 

 sionally melting snow soddening, and re-freezing on the 

 surface. 



In the case of the larvae of the Ceutorhynclius sulcicollis 

 (the cabbage and turnip gall weevil), I had a large 

 number of cabbage plants brought in for examination on 

 the 4th of February from a spot where they had been 

 exposed to the full severity of the weather, with the galls 

 either on the ground level or an inch or two beneath it. 

 Of these I examined thirty-seven simple or compound 

 galls containing one to four larvre apiece, and found that 

 with a single exception every larva was alive and healthy. 

 On opening the galls the larvae were usually lying quite 

 torpid in the slightly-curled position natural to them in 

 repose, and uncurled gradually, and regained power of 

 movement under the action of warmth. Some recovered 

 immediately, others in one or two minutes, and such as 

 still remained motionless whilst in the cold gall, or on the 

 blade of a knife, moved again when breathed upon or other- 

 wise warmed. I also noticed that the larvae in such of 

 the galls as had been nearest the surface, or completely on 

 the ground level, were generally the slowest to recover. 



The seventy or eighty larvae which I examined w^ere of 

 all sizes, fi'om the minutest observable by the naked eye 

 lying in the still-forming gall to full-, or nearly full- 

 grown specimens, almost ready to leave the hollowed 

 chambers in which they lay amongst the rubbish and 

 rejected matter of their workings. 



On thawing back into their normal physical condition 

 their normal instincts appeared also in full play, for on 

 being placed on soft earth they made their Avay (as usual 

 on removal from their galls) into the soil, and I found (by 

 subsequent examination) formed their oval earth-cases as 

 in ordinary circumstances. I also found specimens of 

 Ceutorhynclius sulcicollis larvce on the 9th of February 

 in tiu-nip galls which had been fully exposed to the 

 severity of the weather ; these were in full health after 

 the temporary thaw, in every gall that I opened. 



In the case of Coleopterous larvre in earth I found 

 those of Otiorhynchus sulcatus, on the 26th of January, 

 contained in earth in flower-pots (frozen so hard as to 



