6288 



Insects — Radlaia. 



of brown paper. Sapiini, Dendropbili, &c., have a tendency when distuihed to make 

 their way downwards, and if, after a short time, you lift the net to another part of the 

 paper, you remove the dSbris, and leave the insects behind. The outskirts of the 

 nests should also be well examined, as Mr. Janson describes, looking under stones, &c. 

 The nests of Formica fuliginosa are more productive rather later, when the ants are 

 in activity, — but the investigation is to be carried on chiefly in the neujlihourhood of 

 the nest, in damp places around it and where the ants run. The ground being stirred 

 up the insects will appear if you watch for them. Little is usually to be obtained in 

 the nest, which is generally in the trunk of an old tree. The nests of F. fusca, F. flava 

 and Myrmica rubra afford but few species, and these are chiefly to be found in the 

 galleries, under stones, &c. which may lie upon the nests. It is reasonable to expect 

 that more species may be obtained by the examination of the nests of other ants, 

 especially as the denizens of one kind appear seldom to associate with those of others. 

 Formica fiisca and F. flava seem to be the most convertible, z. you often find the 

 same insects in both. In the nests of F. fuliginosa you almost invariably find some- 

 thing. In those of F. rufa you get many in some, but very many worth nothing. In 

 those of F. flava, F. fusca and Myrmica rubra you may examine hundreds and get 

 nothing. As yet we have obtained results from only a few species, viz.^ Formica san- 

 guinolenta, F. flava, F. fusca, F. fuliginosa, F. rufa and Myrmica rubra. I have set 

 out specimens of the ants, and under each have placed the genera and species usually 

 associated with them, and which may be expected to be found in their nests. — 

 J . A. Power. 



Locusts in Shetland. — The following is an extract from a letter, dated Lerwick, 

 September 27, 1858:—" Great numbers of the Locusta migratoria of Linneus have 

 occurred in this far north during the present month, in the corn-fields and all the 

 islands of any size, even in extreme Unst." Great numbers have also been taken in 

 Caithness. — C. W.Peach; Wick. 



Occurrence of Locusta migratoria in Shetland. — A number of locusts were found 

 last month, amongst coru-fields, in most of the Shetland Islands, as likewise in the 

 bare and isolated Skerry Islands. — Thomas Edward; Banff, October 4, 1858. 



[Similar information reaches me through a variety of channels, especially local 

 newspapers: in some localities on the north-eastern coast and islands of Scotland this 

 advent of locusts has amounted to a positive plague. — E. Newman.'] 



Note on Cydippe Pi'/ews.— Yesterday I used a gauze tow-net unsuccessfully for two 

 hours, so rolled it up and came ashore : on reaching home, seeing a pellucid drop 

 clinging to the net, I floated it off in a glass of sea-water, and found it was a Beroe 

 {Cydippe Pileus), which was evidently damaged by the compression of the net, and 

 some of the bands of cilia were nearly obliterated. The creature seemed incapable of 

 motion, save constant vibration of the remaining cilia. The next morning the globular 

 form was gone, and more than half the animal was represented by an amorphous 

 flocculent mass; the cilia on the crystalline portion were still in vigorous action: in an 

 hour after the whole of it had sunk into the opaque flocculent condition, and all of 



* Head at the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



