Nov. 1, 1S65.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



257 



EHTOMOLOGY. 



Rare Insects. — I have pleasure in reporting the 

 capture of Chcerocampa Celerio, fresh and in beautiful 

 condition, ou the 29th of last month, about twenty 

 minutes past six o'clock, or just dusk. I took it in 

 tlie net whilst hovering over the flowers of a bed of 

 geranium Christine. This is the second specimen I 

 have taken in the garden at Brantingham, ten miles 

 from Hull. I took one in 1846, fast by the proboscis 

 in a flower of . Pliysiaidhm albicens, the flower of 

 which is an excellent insect capturer ; the flowers 

 are very sweet and attractive to insects ; the stamens 

 are so placed that the slightest touch by the proboscis 

 of an insect entering the nectar, the stamens and 

 anthers close firmly round it. I have seen tliis plant 

 with dozens of dead insects upon it, Pluisa gamma, 

 in abundance. Macroglossa steUataruni has been 

 abundant, hovering over the flowers throughout the 

 day. The larva of Acherontia Atropos never known 

 so abundant in this part. — /. H. C. Kingston, 

 Brantingham, Forks. 



Wasps in Plenty. — A correspondent, writing from 

 near Guildford, says, that " contrary to the expe- 

 rience of many observers in other parts, we have 

 been annoyed with most unusual numbers of wasps, 

 no room in the house being free from dozens of 

 them." 



Hive Bees Removed. — I have been taking up 

 four stocks of Bees in the common straw hives this 

 season, and instead of killing the Bees I have 

 removed them into four other stocks, where they 

 are now doing well. The smoke from a piece of 

 pufl'-ball forced into the hive renders the Bees 

 insensible. I have a small fumigator, or circular 

 bellows, used for fumigating plants when infected 

 with insects. I put a small piece of the puif-ball, 

 well dried, with a live coal on it, into the box of the 

 fumigator, and introduce the pipe into the entrance 

 of the hive, stopping up any space there may be 

 left, and by turning the handle the smoke is forced 

 into the hive ; a great buzzing is soon set up within 

 the hive, but in a few minutes all is quiet again. 

 The hive may now be Lifted from the board it stands 

 on, and the Bees shaken out upon a newspaper, and 

 search made for the queen, which should be removed. 

 I then take the bottom part of an old hive, or a 

 hitch made purposely, and place it on the board the 

 hive stood on. I put all the Bees into it and place 

 it on the stand where the old stock stood. I then 

 take the stock the bees are to be joined to, and place 

 it over the hitch. The Bees, as they revive, wUl 

 ascend and mingle with the others, and no opposition 

 will be made to it. Some time the next day the 

 hitch may be removed, and the stock set on its own 

 board again, and all will go on well. — P. P. 



Why Wasps have been Scarce.— At a recent 

 meeting of the Entomological Society, Mr. Stone, 

 who is specially interested in the natural history of 

 wasps and their allies, confirmed the fact that these 

 insects have been unusually scarce in England this 

 autumn, and stated that the larvae had been attacked 

 by a disease which had destroyed them in large 

 numbers. 



Hose Saw-ply. — An interesting life -history of this 

 insect is translated from the Dutch and published 

 in the Zoologist for October. 



The Fly Nuisance.— You are not perhaps accus- 

 tomed to regard Wasps and Hornets as of any use 

 to us ; but they certainly destroy an infinite number 

 of flies and other annoying insects. The year 1811 was 

 remarkable for the small number of wasps, though 

 many females appeared in the spring, scarcely any 

 neuters being to be seen in the autumn ; and pro- 

 bably in consequence of this circumstance, flies in 

 many places were so extremely numerous as to be 

 quite a nuisance. — Kirhy and Spence's Introduction, 

 p. 157. 



Money- WOKT Aphis.— In his "Observations on 

 Natural History," the Rev. L. Jenyns records (p. 

 285) the occurrence of a species of Aphis " at the 

 roots of Lysimachia nunimularia, when growing in a 

 pot in my garden, and rendered unhealthy by being 

 kept too dry. They kept more on the surface of the 

 ground, at the bottom of the leaves and stems, than 

 under the ground, though many might be noticed at 

 the roots themselves." Under precisely similar 

 conditions I have now the same insects flourishing 

 on the same species of plant, which latter is com- 

 monly cultivated in towns, ai«i submit them for 

 identification, — A. F. 



It is probably Aphis Dianfhi. See Ann. and Mag. 

 of Nat. Hist., ser. ii. v. 391.; Zoologist, vi. 2218, 

 2216 ; vii. App. xlvi., li., Iv., Ivii. ; viii. App. ciii., civ. 

 —F. W. 



Aphis Populi.— Erom the 15th to the 24th 

 October, 1858, I observed here (Melle, near Ghent, 

 Belgium) an immense quantity of Aphis populi, 

 coming from tiie West ; the same were seen at 

 Ostend the 12th and 13th. Should not these insects 

 have been observed somewhere in England ? I have 

 just read in several papers that immense swarms of 

 little flies had been seen at Leeds about the 12th of 

 this month. Were they not Aphides ? I saw from 

 the 9 th the Aphis populi in Belgium. — Bernardin. 



Appendages to Water-Beetles. — I have read 

 somewhere that the eggs of water-mites are parasitic 

 attachments on D\ tiscus and other aquatic insects. 

 See Lane Clarke's book on the Microscope, page 

 148.— ;S. /. M. 



