i 3 8 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Helix nemoralis as Ornament. — Near the 

 close of the fifties, or the commencement of the 

 sixties, necklaces composed of shells of H. nemoralis, 

 similar to those described by Mr. Welch (ante page 

 109), were sold in large numbers at Southport, in 

 Lancashire.—/. Potter Briscoe, Public Library, 

 Nottingham. 



Helix xemoralis as Ornament. — Referring to 

 Mr. Welch's note (ante page 109), it was the custom 

 a few years ago for the children on the island of 

 Iona, West Highlands, to sell strings of these and 

 other shells to tourists for a few pence. I am not 

 sure if this is still done, as I have not visited the 

 island for eight or nine years. — /. MacN aught 

 Campbell, F.Z.S., Kelvingroie Museum, Glasgow; 

 nth June, 1895. 



Clouded Yellow Butterflies. — There are 

 several indications that the coming autumn mav 

 make 1895 another ,; clouded yellow year," and 

 those anxious to take this beautiful butterfly should 

 be on the watch for them in the neighbourhood of 

 clover and lucerne fields. Several pioneer females 

 of Colias edusa have been taken in the south of 

 England this spring, and the dry hot weather has 

 been favourable to their progeny. There seems to 

 be little doubt that all the fresh specimens of this 

 butterfly in Britain are the descendants of the year, 

 from foreign immigrant females. The butterflies 

 from the first home-bred brood of the year should 

 be expected late in July. — John T. Carrington. 



Caddis-Worms. — In reply to Mr. Binns' enquiry 

 (ante page 109), the rearing of caddis- worms in 

 aquaria is difficult, for some species impossible, 

 running water, sometimes of high velocity, being 

 essential. The larvae should be quite isolated from 

 fish, and also from dragon-fly and beetle larvae. 

 Give abundance of lower aquatic life as food- 

 supply, a pebbly bed to aquaria, and A nacharis and 

 other water-plants. Separate the species. Much 

 good work remains to be done in describing and 

 figuring. I presume Mr. Binns' query about litera- 

 ture is intended to refer to British Neuroptera only. 

 For these the best, and, in fact, the only, papers 

 are Dr. H. A. Hagen's, in the long-discontinued 

 " Entomologist's Annual " (Gurney and Jackson, 

 Paternoster Row, price 2s. 6d. each year), on 

 Dragonflies, 1857; Planipennia, 1858; Trichoptera, 

 1859 to 1861 ; Psocina, 1861 ; Ephemeridas, 1863. 

 A " Revision of British Libellulidae " occurs in the 

 " Annals and Magazine of Natural History," vol. 

 xviii. (1846), and another of Psocina, in the 

 " Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," vol. iii., and 

 yet another on Ephemeridae in the last-named 

 periodical for June and July, 1888. My own papers 

 on Perlida; [Science-Gossip, O.S., February and 

 March, 1892), are the only recent ones in English. 

 There is also a series of papers by me in the same 

 periodical, from June to October, 1894, inclusive, on 

 the " British Dragon-fly Larva=." The Entomolo- 

 gical Society's " Catalogue of British Neuroptera " 

 (is.), though rather out of date, will furnish most 

 useful information, too voluminous to be given 

 here. — IT*. H. Xunney, Bloom sbury ; June 6th, 1895. 



Newspaper Natural History.— The following 

 example of science as she is sometimes written is 

 too charming to be lost in the ephemeral columns 

 of an evening paper. It appeared in the form of a 

 letter headed " Butterflies," in the " Pall Mall 

 Gazette " on May 27th last, and was signed bv "A 

 Moderate Collector " (Very moderate !). The italics 

 are ours. " In your issue of to-night "May 23rd", is 

 a letter assuring lovers of butterflies that the large 

 tortoiseshell and large copper is not extinct, but 

 unwisely naming a locality where one of the two 

 species is abundant. That these rarities are still to 

 be found everyone rejoices, but their existence is 

 doomed if facilities are given to the omnivorous 

 collector to exterminate them with insatiable hand. 

 At one of the principal post-offices one of the 

 employes showed me about a dozen large 

 tortoiseshells the other day that he had bred from 

 the chrysalis, and was not ashamed to tell me that 

 he had dug up about eight hundred larva* of the same 

 rare insect in the New Forest last autumn. Surely 

 butterflies of rare occurrence should be protected 

 as much as birds, and two or three specimens should be 

 the limit allowed to any collector at the same time. It 

 has always been a matter of regret to me that the 

 writers of the best books on butterflies and moths 

 should have boasted in their books of enormous 

 captures of particular species in some locality or 

 other ; no one requires more than two or three specimens, 

 and the example to young collectors is surely of the 

 very worst type." It is needless to point out to 

 our entomological readers the absurdity of this, 

 but others may be reminded that even a post-office 

 official cannot "dig up" the larvae of Vanessa 

 polychlorus. The other butterfly, Polyommatus dispar 

 has not been caught anywhere since 1848. but the 

 large tortoiseshell butterfly is commonly found in 

 man}- parts of England, and " eight hundred 

 larva; " would make no impression on its numbers 

 in some localities in Eastern Essex. Series of two 

 or three specimens of butterflies would be useless 

 to the scientific entomologist studying the distribu- 

 tion of variation. J. T. C. 



Geology at the New Thames Tunnel. — The 

 tunnel now being made by the London County 

 Council will pass under the Thames from Blackwall 

 to Blackwall Point, on the Greenwich marshes. 

 The material excavated up to the present on the 

 north side has been chiefly river gravel; on the 

 south side the work has passed through a thick bed 

 of peat, full of roots, with a small quantity of black 

 gravel, and then enters the London clay. All the 

 rest of the tunnel is expected to pass through the 

 last-named formation. The new road forming the 

 southern approach has been made chiefly of the 

 " spoil " excavated, but last autumn I noticed lying 

 about, several fossiliferous blocks from the Oldhaven 

 beds. These can scarcely have come out of the 

 tunnel itself, as the Oldhaven beds must be mam- 

 feet below the lowest point reached. The most 

 probable explanation of their presence seems to be 

 that they have been dredged from the bed of the 

 river lower down, with sand and shingle, of which 

 large quantities are brought up for concrete, etc. 

 From these blocks the following fossils were 

 obtained : — Protocardium semigranulatum , Sow. ; Protv- 

 cardium (sp.) ; Axinaa terebratularis, Link.; Axinoea 

 (larger sp.) ; Panopoea intermedia. Sow. ; Meretrix 

 orbicularis, Edw. ; Trophon (sp.) ; Pirula nexilis (?) ; 

 Stenothyra parkinsoni, Mor. ; Aporrhais sowerbyi, 

 Mant. ; Ampullina subdepressa, Mor.; also a few 

 sharks" teeth and one or two shells not yet deter- 

 mined. Mr. G. F. Harris, F.G.S , of the British 



