1SS8.] 277 



The question naturally arises as to the manner in which these insects gain access 

 to bodies, the majority of which are buried in sound coffins at a depth of more than 

 six feet underground. There can be little doubt that even before burial the eggs of 

 certain Dipterous flies are deposited in such parts as the nose and mouth and are 

 buried with the body. This finds confirmation in the fact that bodies buried in the 

 summer months afforded evidence of having fostered an abundance of the larvae of 

 flies that inevitably occur in the sick-room during warm weather, whilst bodies buried 

 in the winter were free from any sign of them. As to access after burial, it was found 

 that under the strain of the weight of the superincumbent soil, assisted by the 

 influence of damp, the strongest and best made coffins soon gape sufficiently at their 

 seams to afford ample room for an insect inroad. It is conjectured that in many 

 cases, such, for instance, as that of the beetle already specially referred to, the perfect 

 insect deposits its eggs near the surface of the soil, at a spot under which a marvellous 

 instinct tells it the food required for its offspring will be found at the proper moment 

 in a suitable condition. When the larvse are hatched, they — probably also directed 

 by the sense of smell — are supposed to make their way down through the earth to 

 their food, after the manner that larvte with other tastes find their way underground 

 to trufiles." 



The author of this article is not correct in saying that S. parallelocollis is met 

 with exclusively in the grass of cemeteries, as it has occurred in the London district 

 in trees infested by Cossus ligniperda, and also in Sherwood and Dean Forests : at 

 the same time it is a curious coincidence that a large number of specimens were once 

 taken by Archdeacon Hey in fungi in York Cemetery in company with Atomaria 

 Jimetarii, and that Mr. Bold records it as not rare in the Northumberland and 

 Durham districts on the walls and tombstones of graveyards ; were it not for the 

 positive statement that the larvae were found actually in the corpses, I should be 

 inclined to think that it was the wood of the coffins that formed the attraction, as 

 wood buried at some distance in the ground will often be found to contain certain 

 species, such as Anommatns and others ; there are about thirty species of Hhizophagus 

 known, and not one only, as the writer of the article seems to imply. I am not aware 

 of any description of the larva of -S. parallelocollis, but those of several other species 

 are well known : they are mostly found under bark, and are said to devour the 

 excrement of the larvse of certain wood-feeding beetles with which they live, although 

 they are to a certain extent carnivorous, and feed on the larvse themselves. Some of 

 them appear to bury themselves in the ground before undergoing their transform- 

 ations, and this may be the case with all ; the natural habitat of the perfect beetle is, 

 however, certainly above ground. It seems curious that i2. parallelocollis should be 

 the only beetle referred to as infesting the coffins. — W. W. Fowlee, Lincoln : 

 January 10th, 1888. 



^bituari|. 



Henry James Stovin Fryer, C.M.Z.S., died prematurely at Yokohama, Japan, 

 on February 17tb, 1888, after a very short illness from bronchial pneumonia. 

 By his death. Entomology has lost one of the best and most observant of its resident 

 votaries in Japan. He was the youngest son of Mr. Thomas Pryer, F.S.A., a London 



