Miscellaneous. 135 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
CORIXA STRIATA, CURTIS., 
Ar the meeting of the British Association in Cambridge, Mr. R. Bail 
brought under the notice of the Zoological Section the fact, that the 
Coriza striata produced loud sounds while immersed in water: the 
following is a note since obtained by Mr. Ball from the original ob- 
server, which it is trusted will induce those who doubted the accuracy 
of the observation to experiment and satisfy themselves :— 
«« At Glasnevin, on the 27th of April 1840, found some of C. striata ; 
kept them alive in a bed-room basin for six weeks; frequently heard 
a noise, and on watching attentively saw one of them stretch its 
hind-legs straight out from its body and remain quite still, resting 
with its middle legs on a bit of Utricularia at the bottom of the 
basin ; it then moved the fore-legs rapidly in front of its head and 
gave three brisk little chirps; very often after the chirps it made a 
noise something like grinding a knife, only very much famter and 
softer; while doing so it moved its body rapidly from side to side, 
still keeping the hind-legs stretched out. It very often made the 
chirps alone ; but not the grinding noise, I think, without the chirps, 
either before or after (mostly before). ‘The sound may be often 
heard during the day; the:evening seems its favourite time, and 
frequently during the stillness of night, just before the day begins 
to break, I have often heard it keeping it up for a long time; still it 
is very uncertain, as it may often be watched for a long: time with- 
out hearing it. Noise disturbs it very much, as it at once will:stop 
on the slightest. Often on placing a candle near it, and remaining 
perfectly still, it has made the sound very merrily : the chirps could 
be heard distinctly in the next room by leaving the doors open, and 
the other noise at the far end of the room that it was in; of course, 
by listening attentively. The longest time that both noises lasted was 
while twenty was counted very fast, though it may be often repeated. 
Coriva is a very pretty insect in the water; it has the appearance as 
if its head, thorax, and a stripe on each side (and I believe the under- 
part of its body) was of the purest silvery-light, which has a very 
pretty effect when kept in a glass vessel, when held to the light, to 
see it swimming quickly. . It catches very rapidly with its fore-legs 
those little animalcule (which abound in water that is kept for 
some time), by rooting very eagerly at the bottom of the vessel 
amongst the mud and bits of plants. It Jays its eggs on Utricularia 
in June; they are small and white, fixed singly at a little distance 
from each other on the leaves, and are hatched in about eighteen 
days, and swim very nimbly. T'wo of the Corira had a curious red 
parasite on the upper part of the body under the wings, and one 
had a Gordius or Filariu. From May to the middle of June is 
the best time for hearing them. We got some Coriza the last week 
in September 1845, two of them lived until the 26th of November; 
during the first three weeks of their confinement they sometimes 
made avery faint noise, but not near so frequent or so audible as they 
make it in early summer. 
