Aug. 1, 1S65.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



18c 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Suffocation of Bees.— The following case of an 

 entire swann being destroyed by sufifocation hap- 

 pened a few weeks since in the aviary of a clerical 

 friend. Having a Nutt's hive, the centre box of 

 which was tenanted by a weak stock of bees, he 

 was desirous of adding to its population, and ac- 

 cordingly very injudiciously hived a swarm in one of 

 the side boxes, with the intention at some future 

 time of effecting a junction between the two families. 

 He saw the bees apparently quietly settled in, and 

 left them, as he thought, all right. He had occasion 

 to go away until the evening, and on his return, to 

 his great grief and mortification, he discovered that 

 . the whole of the bees were lying at the bottom of 

 the hive in a state of suffocation. Every means 

 likely to restore them to animation were resorted to, 

 but in vain : they were all dead or dying. Being 

 certain in his own mind that he had given them 

 means of egress and ingress, for a long time he 

 could not account for their dying of suffocation. On 

 examining the hive, he found that the entire aperture 

 of the entrance was effectually filled up by Mason 

 Bees, so that all exit was effectually prevented, and 

 no admission of air coidd take place. The con- 

 sequence was the loss of a valuable swarm of bees ; 

 but my friend was far more affected by the seem- 

 ingly cruel manner by which they met their death. — 

 Apiator, in Gardener's Chronicle, 



Earwigs. — The present hot dry springhas produced 

 earwigs in immense profusion, or, to speak more pro- 

 perly, has offered no check to the hatching of the 

 eggs and growth of the young. At the present time 

 (June 21) all the specimens visible (and they swarm 

 even in the museum here) are in the pupa state, 

 with rudiments of wing-covers. Small bits of elder- 

 twigs, with the pith scooped out, laid about the 

 flower-beds, or hung against the walls, are excellent 

 traps. The females deposit a comparatively small 

 number of eggs, in holes in the earth, and brood 

 over their young when hatched like a hen over her 

 chickens. — /, 0. W., Oxford. 



New Gall Insect. — Mr. W. Couper has re- 

 cently described a parasite on the common creeping 

 rye-grass. It belongs to the Hymenoptera or Bee 

 order of insects. As soon as the larva issues from 

 the egg, it places its head downwards in the gall, re- 

 maining in that position till it eats its way through. 

 About the end of September it ceases to feed, and 

 prepares to meet a Canadian winter. By this time 

 the gall is hardened, and the larvse remain in a 

 torpid state, becoming active again in the spring, 

 and changing to perfect insects in time to attack the 

 young grass of the season. Baron Sacken regards 

 it as belonging to the genus Eurytoma, 



Defokmed Swallow-tail.— a few days ago a 

 " swallow-tail " {Tapilio Machaon) in my possession 

 emerged from its pupa-case, and I was annoyed to 

 see it defective, as I have been waiting for its deve- 

 lopment some little time. It had only two M'ings, 

 and these were both on one side, and were perfect. 

 A piece of shrivelled membrane, on which but few 

 scales were -^dsible, replaced those on the opposite 

 side. But making the best of a bad bargain, I cut it 

 up for the microscope instead of preserving it. I 

 also mounted the spiracles on either side of the 

 pupa-case, and on their examination I saw what I 

 beHeve to be the cause of the disaster. The spira- 

 cles on one side were perfect, but those on the other 

 were malformed and undeveloped. Instead of being 

 oval, they were roundish, and no perforation was 

 visible ; moreover they were placed at nearly a right 

 angle to the others. Of course neither air nor 

 moisture could be absorbed ; and hence I suppose the 

 absence of wings on that side. "Wood, in his " Com- 

 mon Objects of the Countrj'," mentions a similar 

 case, but gives as a probable cause " insufficient 

 moisture" {vide page 115). I may mention that in 

 the box where I kept the chrysalis I had a watch- 

 glass containing water to supply the requisite mois- 

 ture. — John Davis. 



American Blight. — This common insect {AiMs 

 lanigera), which infests apple-trees, produces in the 

 course of a season eleven broods of young. The first 

 ten broods are vivipai'ous, or are brought forth alive, 

 and consist entirely of females. These never attain 

 their full development as perfect insects ; but, being 

 only in the larva state, bring forth young, and the 

 virgin aphides thus produced are endowed with 

 similar fecundity. But at the tenth brood this 

 power ceases. The eleventh does not consist of 

 active female larvse alone, but of males and females. 

 These acquire wings, rise into the air, sometimes 

 migrate in countless myriads, and produce eggs, 

 which, glued to twigs and leaf-stalks, retain their 

 vitality through the winter. When the advance of 

 spring again clothes tlie plants with verdure, the 

 eggs are hatched, and the larva, vathout having to 

 wait for the acquisition of its mature and winged 

 form, as in other insects, forthwith begins to produce 

 a brood as hungry and insatiable, and as fertile as 

 itself. Supposing that one aphis produced 100 at 

 each brood, she would at the tenth brood be the 

 progenitor of one quint illiou of descendants 

 (1,000,000,000,000,000,000).— P«^mo;2. 



The Ants of Great Britain.— :Z7ii? Entomulo- 

 gisfs Monthly Magazine for July contains a paper by 

 Mr. E. Smith on the British Formicidcp, in which all 

 the British species of ants (thirty-two) are cimnic- 

 rated, with the situation of their nests, period of 

 swarming, and localities where found. 



