SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



6 7 



Omens of Butterflies. — Some who watch 

 eagerly for the appearance of early signs of spring 

 may be interested to learn that in Gloucestershire 

 there is a fixed belief that if the first butterfly seen 

 is white in colour the observer will eat white bread 

 all the rest of the year, That omen seems to 

 mean that Pieris rapes will bring good fortune and 

 wealth. If, however, the first butterfly seen is 

 brown, which would probably be in Gloucestershire 

 a specimen of Vanessa urticce, brown bread will be 

 the food of the year. Otherwise bad luck and poverty 

 will haunt one until the next spring. There may be a 

 basis of truth in this superstition, because if spring 

 comes hot and suddenly immediately after the 

 winter, as it did this year, the white butterflies 

 would appear as soon as the hibernated Vanessidae. 

 It often happens also that the fine weather, as in 

 this season, continues long enough for a good 

 seeding time, with consequent bountiful harvest 

 and prosperity. Whereas in a cold damp season, 

 the brown Vanessas are sure to be about before the 

 whites, and following a cold spring a scanty harvest 

 of all kinds may be expected, with consequent 

 distress among the rural poor. In Nottinghamshire 

 the superstition about the butterflies is wholly 

 cheerful, for the saying goes that it is as lucky to 

 see three butterflies together as three magpies. It 

 is not stated whether the three butterflies are to be 

 of one species. — Flora Winstone, Ockeridge, Epping ; 

 April, 1S94. 



Insects and Disease. — Writing from Hunting- 

 donshire a correspondent tells me of a curious piece 

 of folk-lore obtaining there, relative to insects as 

 destroyers of disease. This is a very contrary 

 condition to that demonstrated by modern science, 

 which has lately shown that flies are among the 

 very worst disseminators of infection, by carrying 

 microbes from infected patients to the food of their 

 healthy neighbours. The Huntingdonshire super- 

 stition is that if the windows of the sick room are 

 thrown open at sunset, so as to admit the gnats, 

 they would fill themselves with the humour and 

 then fly away and die of the disease. This theory 

 appears to apply to any kind of sickness which is 

 at all infectious. Other districts have their own 

 beliefs concerning the connection between insects 

 and disease. For instance, in and about Norfolk, 

 when a child is suffering from whooping cough a 

 house-spider, which though not actually an insect, 

 is popularly considered one, is tied up in a piece of 

 muslin and affixed to the wall of the sick room. 

 It is believed that when the spider dies the cough 

 will disappear, but as long as the animal lives the 

 cough will be as bad as ever. Neither must the 

 spider be killed, but allowed to die a death from 

 starvation and confinement. Those who know 

 anything of the longevity of spiders and the period 

 one of the common house-spiders can live without 

 any food, will think this belief to be somewhat 

 unfortunate, for it is probable in running its 

 ordinary course, the disease would disappear 

 long before it would be possible to kill the spider 

 by starvation. — Flora Winstone, Ockeridge, Epping; 

 April, 1894. 



[This department will be devoted to photography 

 as applied to the representation 0/ scientific objects. 

 Examples, accompanied with notes not exceeding 100 

 words, invited. — Ed.J 



Fairy-Flies. — These delicate insects are the 

 most minute of our flies. Their great beauty 

 lies in the wings, which are exquisitely feathered. 

 They are hymenopterous insects, and belong to the 

 family Mymaridae, though in two different genera. 

 The first figure is that of Anaphes pnnctum ; the 



second, Camptoptera papaveris. To see them in 

 perfection, in all their glory of colour as well as 

 elegance of structure, they must be viewed under 



a low- power of the microscope with the spot lens, 

 when they come out in all their grandeur. Papavn is 

 is one of the most beautiful of the group. — Edward 

 Barnes, Capt., Edgcworth House, Clewer, Windsor; 

 April 1st, 1894. 



