1838 The Zoologist— September, 1869. 



Cyclas cornea (Horny Cyclas). Common. 



Cjclas pallida (Oval Cyclas). Not Common. 



Cyclas lacustris (Lake Cyclas). Not commun. 



In all, forty-nine species and four varieties. Besides the above, I collected 

 specimens of the young of Paludina vivipara, Auodon cygneus, and Uuio Pictoruin. 

 Taking the season all tlirougli, it was a very hot dry one, and not at all a favourable 

 one, I should think, for mollusks. — C. E. Slubbs ; Henley-on-Thames, April 12, 1869. 



Persistence of the Scent of Arom!a moschala. — Late in the summer of 1866 a lady, 

 in one of her walks about here, met with a specimen of Aroraia nioschata, and, struck 

 by its beauty, brought it to me to set it for her. A small phial with spirits of wine 

 being close at hand, was the means of bringing the insect's life to a speedy end, and, 

 if I remember rightly, the beetle was left a night in the phial. A few days ago the 

 phial passed again through my hands, and I was struck by the concentrated perfume 

 emanating from it. Every coUeclor knows that this insect is a nosegay for a long 

 lime after death, but exact observations as to the duration of this quality seem to be 

 wanting, as well as the knowledge of the real constituents of this volatile substance, 

 which I was scarcely prepared to find holding its own so long a time, even in a pre- 

 serving ([u'h\.— Albert Midler ; Peiuje, S.E., May •2\, 1869. 



A Hint respecting the Nematus-Gall of Rhododendron ferrugineum. — On the 30lh 

 of July, 18(i6, Mr. Stainton first met with this gall near Andermatt, in the Urserii 

 Valley, and his courtesy enabled me soon afterwards to examine specimens and to 

 offer a few particulars on the subject in the 'Zoologist,' (p. 1206, S.S.); but these speci- 

 raens were too far decayed to give any clew to the insect. On the 23rd of June, 1868, 

 and the days followini:, during a journey devoted almost entirely to the search after 

 alpine galls, I had the pleasure of myself gathering plenty of these excrescences near 

 the road above Hospenihal, in the same valley, at an altitude of about 4500 feet. 

 The galls, looking with their glowingly red cheeks not unlike small sized whitcheart 

 cherries of irregular shape, were most conspicuous amongst the sober dark green 

 foliage of their foster-plants, which at that time only just began to expand their 

 lovely blossoms. An examination of many specimens showed that at first they are 

 filled with a spongy white substance, enveloping a solitary egg, and that subse(|uently, 

 when this hatches, the larva begins to feed on the surrounding matter, thus gradiuilly 

 forming a chamber around itself. The location of the galls is either each separate 

 upon a leaf or else in the centre of a top of a shoot, in which case the latter, instead 

 of bringing forth its bunch of leaves or blossoms, produces a bundle of more or less 

 crowded galls, i. e. converted leaves or blossoms. Taking into account all I have seen 

 of this gall, I consider it to be the production of a sawfly, belonging probably to the 

 genus Nematus ; but although there is ample precedent for doing so, 1 abstain from 

 burdening nomenclature with a new appellation,*' which task I leave to the finder of 

 the perfect insect, adding that it will probably occur iu August or September, when 

 sweeping the rhododendrons would probably lead to the desired result, for the 



* Naturalists have over and over again bestowed specific names upon insects, of 

 which only the galls or cases, cScc, were known to them at the time they published 

 their writings. 



