132 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



For two days the atmosphere presented all the appearance of a 

 heavy snowstorm, lasting about eight hours each day. Immense 

 numbers, of course, settled, and during one of the days I noticed 

 hundreds of thousands were very actively pairing. Some days 

 afterwards I heard that millions were depositing their eggs in a 

 very large paddock, some few miles away from here, so I went 

 over, and the sight was to me a very strange one. The whole surface 

 of the ground — many acres — was as closely riddled with holes as 

 if every foot of it had been shot down at with a choke-bore gun. 

 It seems the female, as soon as she settles, and decides upon her 

 ground, curves her abdomen, and begins to drill with the end of 

 it by making half turns, and reversing the movement pretty 

 rapidly, continuing the work till she reaches a depth of about 

 2^2 or 3 inches, her abdomen extending like the drawing out of a 

 telescope. The eggs, which are contained in a kind of bag, are 

 then extruded, the abdomen in most cases withdrawn, and the 

 female soon after dies. Often, however, the insect is unable to 

 withdraw her abdomen, and dies in the act of depositing her 

 eggs There are several points I should like to have cleared up, 

 such as how long the eggs take to hatch, the exact structure of 

 the drilling instrument, and what becomes of the excavated earth, 

 for it is a curious fact that the holes are clean cut, as with a ]Dunch, 

 without a vestige of excavated soil on the surface. The main 

 body seemed to be migrating in a south-westerly direction^ but 

 the wind, on one or two days, prevented them making much 

 progress- A good many of the insects are still left behind, but I 

 notice they are all males. How is this to be accounted for ?" 



[Specimens of the perfect insect, which was described by 

 Professor M'Coy, F.R.S., some years ago, for the Department of 

 Agriculture, as Epacromia terminifera, were exhibited by 

 Mr. F. G. A. Barnard at the December meeting of the Club- It 

 belongs to to the family Locustidae, section Saltatoria, of the order 

 Orthoptera. Mr. Pickering forwarded specimens of the females 

 with the abdomen extended, and also of the eggs which hatched 

 out under three weeks. We shall be glad to receive other 

 notes on their habits, etc., from our country friends. — Ed. 

 Victorian Naturalist?, 



Mr. Francis Longmore, chemist, 138 Bourke-street east, 

 thoughtfully mentions that members may have, without compli- 

 ment, numbers of small empty cardboard boxes, which may be 

 useful for retaining stock or duplicate specimens. 



" Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum," vol. XI. — 

 Fringilliformes — has been added to the shelves of the Melbourne 

 Public Library. 



