326 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



the apes of the abdomen, serving to give the 

 appearance of still more formidable dimensions. 

 The general colour of the upper surface is lightish- 

 brown with darker markings, the dividing vein on 

 the elytra being very distinct. The size of this 

 handsome insect would alone prevent its being 

 mistaken for either of the above-mentioned cock- 

 roaches, it being not only longer but of a generally 

 much stouter build than Periplaneta americana., 

 the only one at all approaching it iff sige,.,. 



My own representative is from the Gaboon (or 

 Gabun) district of West Africa, where the species 

 is very abundant, but the insect has occasionally 

 been taken alive in and about the docks and 

 markets of London. 



Leucophaea surinamcnsis Linn. (fig. 4) is a much 

 smaller cockroach than our last, although ap- 

 parently varying considerably in size, one of my 

 specimens scarcely attaining to nine-sixteenths of 

 an inch (15 mm.) in length, whilst another from 

 St. Paul's measures 24 mm., or veiy little short of 

 an inch. The elytra are dark testaceous, the pro- 

 notum being shining black and narrowly but dis- 

 tinctly bordered with orange along its anterior 

 margin, thus imparting a very pleasing effect to 

 the upper surface of this attractive little insect. 

 The elytra are fully developed in both sexes and 

 reach slightly beyond the apex of the abdomen- 

 Upper surface of body brown with yellow mark- 

 ings; legs brown. 



L. surlnameitsis is a cosmopolitan cockroach, 

 having spread with trade from its former haunts 

 to various parts of the globe. It has very rarely 

 occurred in Britain. Mr. Burr, however, records it 

 from Bognor, where two were taken a few years 

 ago by Mr. H. L. F. Guermonprez, who was of 

 opinion they had been imported amongst bananas 

 from Madeira, and one has since occurred at Kew. 

 The claim of this tropical insect to be included in 

 our lists thus rests on very slender grounds. 



The last, but by no means the least, of our occa- 

 sional visitants is the Titan Blaljera gigantea Linn, 

 (fig. 13), which has often been captured in Britain. 

 This handsome hexapod attains from nearly two 

 and a quarter to two and tiiree-quarter inches 

 in extreme length ; the genus Blahcra, including 

 amongst its many species the largest cockroaches 

 at present known (-"). Its upper surface is light 

 testaceous with a well-marked dark central patch 

 on the disc of the shield, two dark patches on the 

 left elytron, and one on the right. The elytra are 

 of considerable breadth, and altogether the size of 

 this insect serves to at once distinguish it from all 

 our other species. This is the '• Drummer" (s") of 

 South America and the West Indies, so called from 

 the fact of its being supposed by natives and others 



(29) Tlie smallest members of the family, measuring less than 

 the eighth of an inch, belong to the Genus Noctiluca, and were 

 ■discovered by M. Simon a few years ago in cases in the Philip- 

 pines ("Camb. Nat. Hist.," vol. v.) 



(30) Drury's " Insects," iii. Preface. 



to make a sharp rapping sound during the night- 

 time in the old wooden houses \vhere it swarms in 

 various parts. Cases are recorded in which it has 

 been known to attack dead and even dying persons 

 by nibbling their extremities. 



B. gigantea has been taken not uncommonly 

 along the London docks, as well as at Bradford, 

 Huddersfield, and one or two other places. For my 

 •' British " specimen of this handsome insect I am 

 indebted to my friend Mr. Willoughby Gardner, 

 who received it some years ago from the Liverpool 

 docks. 



(jro he coneluded.) 



EUBBLE DEI FT AND DRY CHALK 

 VALLEYS. 



By Edward A. Martin, F.G.S. 



"pRESTWICH was one of the earliest geologists 

 -■- to recognise that, beside the vai-ious sub- 

 aerial, marine, and river-valley drifts, there was a 

 fourth that he designated the - rubble drift," and 

 which he first recognised in 1851 in the Sangatte 

 Cliff. This has also long been known under the 

 general term of " head," and it is this which is 

 associated with all the raised beaches around our 

 coasts. These raised beaches are all fairly uniform 

 in structure, containing rounded local and foreign 

 stones, but the rubble drift naturally varies in 

 composition according to locality, and as to 

 whether it has been formed near or far from the 

 source of its constituent joarts. 



The raised beaches were probably continuous 

 around all our southern coasts ; but the contour of 

 the coast being different at the time of formation 

 from that which now obtains, the encroachments of 

 the sea have very widely destroyed all traces of 

 them. The rubble drift, which in some places 

 occurs immediately over the raised beach, as at 

 Kemp Town, Brighton, can also be seen at the 

 following places, in many cases, however, without 

 any beach, as though it were more extensive in 

 its formation than the latter : — Margate, South- 

 Eastern railway station ; .the gaps on each side 

 of the North Foreland ; the cliffs west of Rams- 

 gate ; South Foreland, by Kingsdown ; Dover West 

 Cliff, w^here inammoth remains have been found ; 

 Folkestone, under the Battery, with hippopotamus 

 and mammoth remains ; under Eastbourne, again 

 with remains of hippopotamus and mammoth : 

 Birling Gap ; Cuckmere Valley ; Ouse Valley, 

 above Xewhaven, with bones of a species of 

 Elcplias ; Rottingdean ; Brighton, at Kemp Town, 

 including mammoth and hippopotamus ; Hove and 

 Portslade ; the Sussex Coast plain, at Worthing, 

 Peppering, and Selsey, aiul especially near CJhi- 

 chester, where were mammoth remains ; Hayling 

 Island ; Portsea ; ]5embridge Point, Isle of Wight ; 

 Freshwater Gate, mammoth being represented ; 



