384 Miscellaneous. 
character and violate its limits, if we introduced into it an animal 
with so singular a structure as Cryptoprocta. 
This animal must, therefore, form a peculiar group approaching 
most nearly to the cats; and in order to represent exactly the re- 
lations which it has to the genus Felis, it would seem necessary to 
unite it with those animals in a tribe which would then be subdivided 
into two families, one including the digitigrade, and the other the 
plantigrade Felinee.—Comptes Rendus, August 5, 1867, pp. 232- 
235: abstract. 
A way to determine Trichopterous Pupe. 
By A. E. Eaton, Trin. Coll. Cam. 
Having been asked in what way the pupa-skin described in the 
last June Number of this Magazine was ascertained to be that of 
Brachycentrus subnubilus, Curt., without rearing the insect, I will 
briefly indicate it, with a view to the removal of any doubt that may 
be entertained respecting the correctness of the determination. 
Ist, by observing what species is, or are, most abundant in a 
certain locality at a given time; 2ndly, by collecting from patches 
of weeds the sloughs of pupze, and putting together those which 
correspond in size; 3rdly, by making a comparison between the leg- 
spurs, the neuration of the wings, and the palpi of the slough and 
those of the adult state of the most probable species, it is not 
difficult to refer a pupa-skin to the proper insect. This done, by 
dredging up occupied caddis-cases, the living pupa (and thus the 
case also) of the species can be discovered.  ~ 
On the Spontaneous Movements of the Leaves of Colocasia esculenta 
(Schott), and on the Ejection of Water from them in a continuous 
jet. By M. Musser. 
M. Lecogq has published *, in the ‘Comptes Rendus’ of the 22nd of 
last April, some very interesting observations on the spontaneous 
movements of the leaves of Colocasia esculenta (Schott). 
“ Several times he had the opportunity of witnessing violent fits of 
shaking, among others on the 20th of January and 2nd of March. 
On the latter day, in the morning, although the temperature of the 
stove was lowered to 7°C. (=45°'6 F.), the agitation was consider- 
able in all the leaves, both old and new, without exception : it is an 
actual febrile movement, a very violent shivering.” | 
These facts, except as regards intensity, are identical with those 
that I have sometimes witnessed, in observing the ejection of water 
by the leaves in vernation of Colocasia esculentat. This was some- 
times a sort of vibration impressed upon the convoluted and erected 
leaf, sometimes a waving of the expanded leaf, sometimes a rustling 
in the interior of the mass, which was composed of a hundred leaves 
of every dimension, from 0°1 to 1:10 metre in length. 
* See Annals, ser. 3. vol. xix. p. 439. 
+ See ‘Comptes Rendus,’ tome lIxi. p. 682, October 23, 1865, and my 
<uemoir in ‘ Ann. de l’Acad. des Sciences de Toulouse,’ 1866, 
