Insects. 475 



remainder of the summer and autumn. On the evening of a very fine and warm day 

 in April of the same year, a number of wasps and earth bees were seen upon the cat- 

 kins of a sallow (Salix Caprcea), all in a stupified, torpid, or dying condition. Several 

 ha'd fallen to the ground, and all were in such a depressed state that the chilly cold of 

 the coming night would finish their existence. The baneful influence, whatever its 

 nature might have been, seemed to arise from the Salix, as there was abundance of 

 light and warmth to enable the insects to reach their proper quarters for the night. 

 But this mode of lessening the numbers of the wasps must have been of partial effect 

 compared with the general one already mentioned, which was peculiar to the unsea- 

 sonable weather, and not to any particular locality. — G. Gordon ; Elgin, Jan., 1844. 



Note on mutilated Humble-bees. I have lately been enabled to unravel, in some 

 degree, the mystery of the mutilated humble-bees, a query about which I recently in- 

 serted in ' The Zoologist ' (Zool. 336). My informant was the Rev. R. M. White, 

 D.D., of Magdalene College, Oxford, who, some years since, saw, towards the end of 

 August, several large humble-bees lying on their backs in an ant-path. They were 

 speedily seized by the ants, who tore off their wings with their jaws, and carried them 

 off towards their nest. In the instances observed by myself, the bees were crawling 

 about at liberty ; and if there had been ants near them, I think I should have noticed 

 it, but they might have escaped after mutilation. — F. Holme ; Corpus Christi College, 

 Oxford, January 8, 1844. 



Note on Beetles inhabiting Ants' Nests. As the attention of entomologists seems at 

 present much drawn to the strange captivity of the Claviger, Atemeles, and other mi- 

 nute Brachelytrous species in the nests of ants ; I may be excused for referring to an 

 incident published by myself in the ' Entomological Transactions,' vol. iii. p. 121 , which 

 proves that their attentions are not confined to the smaller species of that family. The 

 captors in this instance were the large red and black ants, not uncommon in the West 

 of England, and the Philonthus, which they were carrying along the bar of a gate, was 

 " all alive and kicking." I had no other idea at the time than that he was destined to 

 become their prey, as I think that the residence of Brachelytra in ants' nests had not 

 then (1833) been observed. — Id. 



Note on the Gloiv-worm. In reference to Mr. Jordan's communication (Zool. 413) 

 I may mention that the larva of the glow-worm is luminous, as well as both sexes of 

 the imago. I have found them shining as late as November, among the long wet 

 grass by the side of ditches. — Id. 



Note on the Bombardier beetle. In reference to Mr. Lighton's note on Brachinus 

 crepitans in the same page, I may refer him to a note of mine in the ' Proceedings of 

 the Entomological Society,' vol. ii. p. 7, of my haviug obtained discharges from the 

 insect four days after death. — Id. 



Note on the comparative numbers of Coleoptera affecting meadow lands. From my 

 captures in the floods of last March, April and May, I have made the following list, 

 showing the comparative numbers that these families of beetles bear to each other. 



SPECIMENS. SPECIMENS. SPECIMENS. 



Aphodiidae 257 Harpalidae 130 Bembidiidae 34 



Histeriidae 228 Sphaeridiidae 118 Silphidas 18 



Tachyporidae, Sta- Chrysomelidae 114 Brachinidae 6 



phylinidae 222 Scaritidae 98 Salpingida; 2 



Curculionidae 194 Byrrhidae 81 Cerarabycidae 1 



Elateridae 190 Helophoridae 73 



