THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 
add that no heather, on which C. bipustulatus is taken, grows 
nearer than about half a mile off, and there only in a small 
patch on the top of another hill—W. A. Forbes. 
Dasypolia Templi.i—I am advised to keep Templi larvae 
out of doors in an open box planted with Heracleum sphon- 
dylium. Is this wise, when they are so likely to be attacked 
with ichneumons? Would it not be better to cover the box 
with tarlatan?—Owen Walson; Cwmffrwd, Carmarthen, 
April 13, 1874. 
[I would, nevertheless, recommend the larve being kept in 
the open air; the chance of the ichneumon of Dasypolia 
Templi finding the larva of that insect in a state of captivity, 
as it may be called, is very small.—EHdward Newman. | 
Rose-galls.—In the beginning of April the gall, mentioned 
in the ‘Entomologist’ (Entom. vii. p. 94), produced one 
female specimen of Rhodites Rosarum and two males of a 
Callimome.—Francis Walker. 
Humble Bees Fertilizing Gentians.—The closed gentian 
(Gentiana Andrewsii) has flowers an inch and a quarter or 
more in length. These inflated, bright blue flowers of late 
autumn appear to be always in the bud, as they never open. 
The corolla is twisted up, so as to leave no opening at the 
top. The flowers are all nearly erect, with two stigmas con- 
siderably above the five anthers. I see but one way in which 
it can be fertilized, that is by insects. Several of my students, 
as well as myself more than two years ago, have often seen 
humble-bees entering these flowers. They pry into or untwist 
the opening with their mouth-organs and legs, and then pop 
into the barrel-shaped cavity, which they just fill—‘ American 
Naturalist, vol. viii. p. 180. 
Organs of Hearing in Insects.—At the last meeting of the 
National Academy of Sciences, Professor A. M. Mayer exhi- 
bited experimental confirmation of the theorem of Fourier, as 
applied by him in his propositions relating to the nature of 
a simple sound, and to the analysis by the ear of a composite 
sound into its elementary pendulum-vibrations ; and to show 
experiments elucidating the hypothesis of audition of Helm- 
holtz. Placing a male mosquito under the microscope, and 
sounding various notes of tuning-forks in the range of a 
sound given by the female mosquito, the various fibres of the 
antenne of the male mosquito vibrated sympathetically to 
Q 
