332 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



mens : they may be sent safely in a glass tube. The fact of 

 such insects being destructive to rape and turnips is quite new 

 to rae, and is very interesting. 



Shower of Insects at Bath. — Your article in the 'Entomo- 

 logist' for last month brought to my mind one by the Hon. 

 Mrs. Ward, published in the 'Intellectual Observer' in 1864 : 

 it occurs in vol. v. p. 13. Mrs. Ward observes; — "On the 

 20th August I received from a friend a little box containing 

 a pale jelly-like substance, and a paper containing about 

 thirty black grains, at first sight resembling dry tea. The 

 information my friend sent with them was, ' that they were 

 found on the deck of his yacht, the vessel being moored, as 

 usual, at some distance from land in an inlet of Lough Ree, 

 county Westmeath.' * * * I wrote to ask a few questions 

 concerning the jelly and black grains, and ascertained the 

 following particulars : — ' The boatman, whose duty it was to 

 scour the deck each morning, was repeatedly annoyed by 

 finding spots of jelly lying on the deck, &c. He at first 

 thought he had taken it up when wetting the deck with 

 water taken from the lake ; but when the weather became so 

 rainy as to make this artificial wetting unnecessary, he still 

 found them.' * * * Having now detailed the antecedents 

 of the jelly, I proceed to the second part of my story. I left 

 the jelly for five days in a tumbler (of water), out of sight, and, 

 1 believe, to a certain extent, out of mind also ; and the small 

 portion of that with brown particles, which I had last examined 

 with the microscope, remained still in the animalcule cage, 

 slightly flattened between its two disks of glass. On placing 

 the animalcule cage under the microscope, on August 25th, 1 

 saw with sudden surprise that several singular-looking larvae 

 had made their appearance among the jelly. That they had 

 been produced from the brown particles was evident, as 

 many empty shells were visible, and other similar larvae 

 could be discerned ready to come out of the particles, or 

 eggs as they may in future be called. * * * I at once 

 recognised their forms as familiar to me. A similar insect, 

 with its strange seal-like head and tiny pairs of feet, seal-like 

 also, had often thrust itself across the field of view — a giant 

 among pigmies — while I have been examining minute 

 animalcules with one of the higher powers of the micro- 

 scope. The larvae appeared perpetually struggling to free 



