1922 The Zoologist — November, 1869. 



Young Thrasher in Torbay. — A youiifj specimen of this species was caiiglit in 

 Toibay on the 20tb of August, measuring (including tbe tail) four feet seven inches 

 in length. This animal, which has frequently been observed in the bay on previous 

 occasions, and even been unsuccessfully netted, is the second of its kind that has been 

 captured in the bay. — A. de Hiigel ; Florian, Torquay, September 26, 186S). 



The last of the Ladybirds. — Like other counties we have had ouv swarm of lady- 

 birds, and, although generally distributed through the district, it was only this week 

 that their immense numbers became apparent. On Wednesday, the 8tli of the monih, 

 a strong S.W. wind drove myriads towards the Humher. I was out on this day on ihe 

 mud-flais after some knot, and saw incredible quantities of these insects helidessly and 

 hopelessly (for the next tide would carry them to sea) sirugf-ling in the slime. On the 

 Humber embankments, and for some yards inland, they were so thickly scattered as to 

 make it hardly possible to move without treading on some at each step. In some 

 places I counted thirty to forty in a space my baud could cover. On a single stalk of 

 hemlock there were one hundred and thirty-five, and on a plant of this species from 

 eight hundred to a thousand, giving it the appearance of a pretty berry-bearing 

 sbiub; on the lee-side of a post I counted one hundred and eighlj-three. There 

 appears to be three, if not four, well-marked species, the common one, however, 

 (Coccinella 7-punclala), immensely predominant. I do not think birds eat these 

 insects ; at least I have not found this to be the case with any of our common s])ecics, 

 as the rook, starling, sparrow, Ike. They are hunted up by the cock-tailed beetles 

 (Staphyliiius), and 1 have often seen one of these unpleasant creatures walking off with 

 a poor ladybird firmly clasped in its mandibles. The heavy gales of ibe equinox now 

 daily carry myriads out to sea; and yet to-day, September 16. h, I find the entire 

 length (two miles and a half) of the sea-embankment in this ])arish more thickly 

 covered than ever. On au average there are, along its entire length, twenty-five 

 insects on each square fool; but this is a low average, as in every little sheltered 

 corner, or hollow, they are crowded in dense masses. As fast as these are driven sea- 

 wards their place is taken by ever-increasing swarms coming from the land. On the 

 crest of the embankment they are thickest, gradually decreasing as we proceed inland. 

 Either the wind or some other eause impels all alike in the same direction, one from 

 which there is no escape, and Ihe mud-flats and Humber finally receive these insect- 

 armies now that their work is doae.— John Cordeaux ; Great Coles, Ulceby, Sep- 

 tember 18, 1869. 



Acari parasitic on a Cecidomyia. — I have to reconl the occurrence of three speci- 

 mens of a minute white Acarus on a small Cecidomyia, bred from the terminal tuft of 

 the hawthorn. The body of this Acarus is egg-shaped, slightly flattened ; a fringe of 

 silver-white short hairs surrounds the sides of the body ; from this fringe there protrude 

 at regular intervals single while bristles, three times as long as the fringe itself. Legs 

 eight, short; a pair of setiform palpi protrudes from the mouth. These creatures were 

 very active, perambulating their host in all directions ; when disturbed they fixed 

 themselves in an instant, no matter if to the body or the wings; but I could not detect 

 that they trusted themselves either to the legs or the antennae of the midge. It 

 remains to be investigated if they are regular parasites or only accidental and trouble- 



