( xxxvii ) 



BY CONTINUED RAINS. — Prof. PouLTON drew attention to an 

 observation sent to him by Miss Margery G. Farnell, writing 

 April 15, 1914, from AUerford, Somerset : — 



" Suddenly on a rather damp path and flowerbed a wriggling 

 mass of these larvae appeared. They are there in millions. 

 Yesterday we swept up two barrows full and gave them to the 

 trout, hoping they will devour them. Fresh ones wriggle to 

 the surface every minute." 



Miss Farnell had since stated that larvae came to the 

 surface after the continued rains, and that they had not been 

 brought up by the use of weed-killer, artificial manure, etc. 

 At the date of her last letter, April 23, they were still appearing 

 daily in thousands. Prof. Poulton said that they hoped 

 to rear perfect insect from the larvae sent by Miss Farnell, 

 and thus determine the species. It was evident from the 

 size of the larva that the Tipulid was one of our larger species. 

 Many years ago Prof. Poulton had recorded the fact that the 

 carnivorous shelled slug Testacella was driven to the surface 

 when the ground was water-logged. 



Prof. Poulton also exhibited three Tipulid pupa-cases 

 found protruding like an Egeriid from a dead beech stem at 

 Wytham, near Oxford, May 30, 1913, by Mr. Joseph Collins 

 of the Hope Department. All three were in the same trunk 

 and near the ground. Mr. E. E. Austen had kindly deter- 

 mined the species as almost certainly flavolineata, Meig. 

 A specimen in the Natural History Museum bore the note — 

 " Larva lives in rotten birch wood." 



The resting position of the African Nymphaline 



BUTTERFLY HaMANUMIDA DAEDALUS, F. — Prof. PoULTON said 



that his attention had been called by Mr. W, A. Lamborn to 

 the following passage on page 316 of '" Insects, Their Structure 

 and Life," by G. H. Carpenter (J. M. Dent & Co., 1899) :— 



" Butterflies rest as a rule with the wings folded over the 

 back so as to expose the lower surface to view, and this is 

 usually protectively coloured with a mottled pattern of brown 

 or grey. An observation made on a common African butterfly 

 — Hamanumida daedalus — shows the importance of the nature 

 of the wing-markings in relation to the resting-attitude. In 

 West Africa this insect rests with the wings folded over the 



