76 Miscellaneous. 



In July last I had a large specimen of Ixodes brought me, taken 

 from off a West Indian tortoise. I put it into a pill-box, and having 

 left home for a few weeks in the autumn, it was completely forgotten. 

 Last month however (November) I happened to open the box, when 

 I found the specimen still alive, though languid and shrivelled in 

 appearance, accompanied by a strange-looking mass larger than it- 

 self, which upon examination proved to be an immense number of 

 orange-coloured eggs, resembling a portion of the roe of a fish, but 

 more minute in structure. This day I found the parent dead, but 

 the eggs I think appear to have increased in size ; whether they are 

 likely to produce any young is still to be seen. At the lowest cal- 

 culation the animal had lived four months without food. 



My second is an instance either of affection or loyalty, I cannot tell 

 which. In one of my colonies of ants, a small black one, the queen 

 (which is as large as six of the workers at least), died a fortnight 

 since from some cause, and lies in one of the passages of the formi- 

 cary. But up to this clay there has been constantly several work- 

 ers attending her remains, occasionally touching her with their an- 

 tennae and striking her with their heads (an action common with 

 this species of ant on meeting each other, which I have not observed 

 in any other families). A few days since I poured some water into 

 the nest, to see if it would cause the guards to forsake their charge, 

 as water generally causes a dispersion when it suddenly enters their 

 passages ; but in this instance, although it threw them into some 

 confusion, they would not leave the body of their queen. Is this 

 affection ? I remain, dear Sir, yours respectfully, 



Henry Denny. 



Richard Taylor, Esq. 



NOTE ON THE INSECTS OF MADEIRA. 



We make the following extract, by permission of Mr. W. Thom- 

 son of King's College, from a private letter addressed to him from 

 Madeira by our correspondent, T. V. Wollaston, Esq., of Jesus Col- 

 lege, Cambridge : — 



" The country here is most glorious ; mountains rising 7000 feet 

 towards the moon, and Funchal at the bottom of them, ■ looking at 

 itself ' in the sea : the intermediate space filled up with wood and 

 rock, and for the last 1000 feet with vineyards arranged on terraces 

 and the country-houses of the ' aristocracy ' of Funchal. The vege- 

 tation is grand to an excess : grapes, oranges, bananas, figs, pump- 

 kins, guavas and prickly pears in actual profusion, with geraniums, 

 cacti, fuchsias, myrtles, cassias and heliotropes spread over the coun- 

 try like weeds. The hills are tremendous, involving the necessity 

 of keeping a horse, which is sometimes ' too large a specimen to be 

 convenient' in entomological researches. Insects are themselves 

 scarce here ; so I have been driven to collect all orders alike, and 

 muster 230 species, or 970 specimens ; and as I have been here only 

 six weeks, this will at least show you that entomology is still che- 

 rished, though under adverse circumstances and many local disad- 



