312 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Tipula oleracea. — The offensive-looking grubs, sent by a 

 " Sussex farmer," are the larvae of the common daddy-long- 

 legs (Tipula oleracea): they are described as eating the young 

 blade of oats just below the surface of the ground. The 

 remedy will be found in doing all you possibly can to 

 encourage partridges, rooks, starlings and sparrows. I know 

 of no artificial remedy so good as this natural one ; but lime 

 water and water in which walnut-leaves have been boiled 

 effect the same object when these can be applied, as on 

 small lawns or grass-plots : it is almost impossible to employ 

 these remedies on a large scale. 



Shower of Insects at Bath. — Can you, or any of your 

 correspondents, account for the following apparently myste- 

 rious occurrence : — On Saturday, April 22nd, during a shower 

 of rain myriads of small glutinous globules, corresponding to 

 the one I forwarded to you, fell on the platform of the 

 Midland Railway Station here : lying on the platform they 

 resembled half-melted hailstones; where it was dry they 

 seemed to disappear altogether, only leaving behind a grease- 

 like spot about the size of a pea. They first appeared 

 between 5 and 6 a.m., and by 11 a.m. worms of about half an 

 inch in length issued singly from the globules ; but from only 

 a comparatively small number of them. A few of the remain- 

 ing globules were then gathered up on a piece of paper and 

 kept in water; a sample of these I have forwarded for your 

 inspection (the small insects having appeared in the water 

 after two days had elapsed). On Sunday, April 23rd, 

 another downfall occurred, nearly in the same place and 

 under precisely similar circumstances. A local naturalist has 

 accounted for the phenomenon in this way : — He believes the 

 insects to have been the larva? of the gnat, cast up from the 

 river in a water-spout and borne away by the wind ; but, as 

 there was nothing of a hurricane at the time, and no one 

 observed anything extraordinary, this would seem improbable. 

 What are they ; and how came they to be up in the air } In 

 order to prevent misapprehension it may be as well to state 

 tha^, although I did not actually witness this extraordinary 

 occurrence, 1 saw the insects in very large quantities, just as 

 they had been gathered together, a few days after; and that 

 the information given above is from numerous and most 

 reliable authorities, some of whom actually witnessed the 



