60 (August, 
The larva of Tipula oleracea, Linn. (crane-fly), injurious to Rye-grass—To say 
that hand-in-hand with the stimulated production of any crop there appears an 
increased number of noxious insects, is but stating a truism. An instance of this 
kind has just come under my notice. There exists in this neighbourhood a well 
managed irrigation farm. Part of this land is at present used for the growing of 
rye-grass for green fodder, and the luxuriance of the crop in some parts seems a 
promising augury for a good return in hard cash in exchange for the labour spent 
on the land. 
At present there seems to exist, entomologically speaking, only one drawback, | 
which does to some extert check the growth of the crop. The fields are alive with 
the larvee of Tipula oleracea, the intervening hedge rows and borders literally 
swarm with the perfect insects, and afford them a ready shelter for the deposition 
of their eggs, of which each female lays several hundreds. Bare spots along the 
borders in sections, where the crop ought to be just springing up, testify to the 
ceaseless damage done by these larvee, which remain buried just underneath the 
surface all day, and are up and doing at night. 
The rooks are busy at work to stay the plague, and ought to be protected ; 
but to aid in the work of destruction I would suggest repeated rollings of the 
infected spots and the fallows with the clod-crusher, and above all a systematic 
clearance of the rank weeds and long grass along the hedges and ditches encom- 
passing the estate, as these spots are regular breeding stations of this destructive 
crane-fly.— ALBERT Mutter, South Norwood, S.E., 30th May, 1870. 
Abundance of pupe of Callimome devoniensis, Parfitt, 2? .—I have annually at 
this time been wont to open the still intact galls of Cynips lignicola, Hartig, for the 
so far unsuccessful purpose of meeting with the expected male. At this time of the 
year two sets of this gall, both of last year’s growth, are found on the tree, one con- 
stantly larger, showing either the exit hole of the female Cynips, or else the 
rough opening pecked by the tits for the extraction of the fat female larva; the 
other set of galls, owing to premature arrest of developement, is constantly smaller, 
without any visible opening and contains now the sculptured pupa of Callimome 
devoniensis, Parfitt, reposing on the larval skin of its victim in the shape of a 
shrivelled currant-like brown cake. Galls of this size I have never found opened by 
the tits; whether they are aware that their dainty food is absent therefrom, or 
whether the parasitic pupa is not to their taste,as we may suppose the perfect 
Callimome in its glittering coat of mail is not, actual experiment will have to prove. 
Suffice it here to record, that I have this day collected and opened literally hundreds 
of this smaller C. lignicola gall, in all of which the female pupa of Callimome 
devoniensis waited for her resurrection day, and that I haye not seen one gall of 
this kind opened by the birds ; nor have I been able to meet in the whole batch of 
these smaller galls with a single living Cynips larva, nor with a single male Cal- 
lUimome pupa.—ID. 
Deilephila livornica at Dartmouth.—On each of the evenings of June 2nd and 
3rd I captured a specimen of this insect, one flying over Red Campion, and the 
other over Valerian.—S. H. Cones, H. M. 8. “ Britannia,’ Dartimouth, July, 1870. 
