298 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



tions in Natural History' (p. 275), published in 1846. In 

 reference to the occurrence of this fly in King's College 

 Lodge in September last, Prof. Westwood ' thought it was 

 with a view to hybernation.' This in itself seems not impro- 

 bable ; but the remarkable thing is, in this case, that the 

 same house, if not the same room, should have been selected 

 by this species of insect for the above purpose over a period 

 of nearly forty years, during which time there must have been 

 a succession of many generations. On the occasion of the 

 swarms in 1831, it was about the 17th of September, so far as 

 could be remembered, that these insects first showed them- 

 selves; and it was thought that they had entered the room 

 very early in the morning, by a window looking due north, 

 which had been open during part of the night, having been 

 first observed between 8 and 9 a.m." 



Pollen-mass of an Orchid on the Eye of a Dipteron. — Mr. 

 Verrall exhibited a dipterous insect, Pipiza noctiluca, taken 

 by himself at Rannoch, to the head of which was adhering a 

 foreign substance, apparently a fungoid growth. Several 

 members dissented from this explanation of the nature of the 

 substance in question, and thought it was probably -the 

 pollen-mass of an orchid. 



Gall on the leaves of a Carex. — Mr. Miiller exhibited a 

 gall on a species of a Carex, concerning which he read the 

 following notes : — " The present Lord Walsingham kindly 

 sent to me, in the middle of September last, a growing plant 

 of an undetermined species of Carex, collected near Thetford, 

 in Norfolk, pointing out to me at the same time some curious 

 galls on its leaves. They may be described as oblong, of the 

 size of a grain of wheat, and as attached longitudinally to the 

 blades of the Carex, sometimes in groups. When fresh they 

 were of a paler green than the plant itself; in their present 

 dry state they are coffee-brown, and remind one vividly, by 

 size and colour, of the brown cocoons of certain Nemati. 

 But this resemblance is only superficial ; they form part and 

 parcel of the plant, and derive, in their fresh state, their sap 

 direct from its tissues. They are monothalamous. I potted 

 the plant immediately on arrival, but, notwithstanding my 

 constant attention, 1 have failed to rear the maker of these 

 excrescences, so I record my observations so far, in the hope 

 that other naturalists will be luckier than myself." 



