MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



697 



of freshly fallen snow, not of uniform level all throvighout but undulat- 

 ing here and there. With time the mass gradually set harder, ulti- 

 mately turning into the consistency of very fine camphor granules 

 firmly stuck together. On breaking open a portion of the frothlike 

 substance beautiful eggs were discovered. The eggs were oval-shaped, 

 very small in size (about ^" X /j")? colourless, having prismatic reflec- 

 tions, very closely in touch with one another, the portions of the eggs 

 in touch being the sides, the extremities being more or less free. There 

 were two tiers of eggs one above the other. A colourless but palpable 

 exudation held the eggs on the tiers together, the whole egg-mass 

 being encrusted in the external "froth." After nearly a fortnight 

 the egg-mass turned yellowish. 



The other substance was very easily soluble in absolute alcohol. 



The size of the ootheca was above ff"xi". 



The egg-inass was put in a vessel with as much earth and moisture as 

 were deemed necessary, takixig additional care to put in earth of the very 

 place on which the leaf was on the point of falling. But the eggs gradu- 

 ally shrivelled up and did not hatch. A discovery of one or two empty 

 egg-cells suggested the possibility of the presence of newly hatched-out 

 larvae but a search to find them out was futile. 



As the use of the incrustation was obviously, among other things, t<^ 

 protect the egg-mass from undue exposure, it is not impossible that the 

 opening made into the mass was wholly or partially responsible for the 

 eggs not hatching in the presence of conditions which, though of course 

 artificial, were made as favourable as possible. 



S. K. SEN, 

 Asst. to 2iid Imp. Ent. 



PusA December liUl. 



