1871.] 109 
Nematus Vallisnierti, Hartig, ovipositing under difficulties.—It would hardly be 
worth while to mention that I noticed a 2 of thiscommon species deposit her eggs 
into the extremity of a succulent young shoot of Salix fragilis, at 11 o’clock a.m., 
on the 28th May last, were it not that the act took place under unusual conditions. 
The extremity of the shoot in question was formed by the normal incipient wrapped- 
up bunch of silky and tender leaflets ; but the whole bunch was so closely beset with 
a cluster of apterous green Aphide, with white longitudinal stripes, that it astonished 
me to see the saw-fly select it. I watched her as she came leisurely crawling over 
the live studding of the shoot, probing with her antennz the few interstices. Vexed 
at the tickling caused by the feet of the intruder, the Aphide took to their usual 
means of defence —jerking their bodies, and freely discharging their liquid,—they 
behaved as if some ally of Allotria victriz had come amongst them for a sinister pur- 
pose. But my little innocent friend was not to be scared away by such unfriendly 
demonstrations. I saw her raise herself stiffly on her legs, standing on the living 
and moving pavement, and slowly drive her saw home into the tissue of the bunch 
of leaflets below. Gradually her body approached nearer to those of the Aphide 
around, and at last its pressure crowded them out of their positions, until I could 
see the tip of her abdomen rest on the surface of the bunch of leaflets, while her 
deflexed limbs still kept their hold on the bodies of her neighbours, which were all 
this time doing their best to get rid of her. For a quarter of an hour she remained 
in this apparently uncomfortable position, then she gradually raised herself up on 
her living cushious, and when the saw was fully withdrawn, she crawled away from 
the cluster of spiteful suckers, and halting at a clear spot on the twig, she 
went through a thorough process of cleansing: first the fore feet brushed her an- 
tennz repeatedly, then the third pair was drawn over the wings to remove the 
sticky liquid squirted over them, then the legs themselves were subjected to the 
same treatment. At last I thought she was really too fond of her toilette, so my 
rude fingers closed upon her, and, indoors, I just made sure it was the well-known 
Nematus Vallisnierit, before I set her free again. Another point I have ascertained 
by this observation is, that the eggs are all laid in one batch, into different leaflets 
of the leading shoot, before they expand and grow apart; and that the subsequent 
appearance of rows of galls on different leaves of the same twig, is, therefore, the 
result of one operation.— ALBERT MutLeEr, South Norwood, 8.E., August 19th, 1871. 
Is the ‘instinct’ of bees ever at fault ?—In reply to Mr. McLachlan’s note on this 
subject, in your last number, “ would he be surprised to hear” that the country 
bee-keepers near here say that bees are blind to things close to them, and con- 
sequently have to take aim from a distance when flying to any particular object ? 
If this theory be correct, the apparently strange conduct of the Osmia, noticed by 
Mr. McLachlan, may have been caused neither by “‘ too potent libations of nectar” 
nor by “a fault of instinct,’ as he suggests, but merely by the defective vision of 
the insect in question A. E. Hupp, Bristol, September, 1871. 
| Admitting the country bee-keepers to be right, would it be sound to argue on 
Osmia from Apis? But any one who has seen a hive-bee flying straight from one 
to another flower on the same branch, must disbelieve the idea of defective vision 
in that insect.—EDs. | 
