144 



[November, 



took the insect "in August," but it should be " in June.'* Mr. McLachlau would 

 appear to think that it must have come from a distance, but there is plenty of 

 water about Highgate — the seven large ponds communicating with each other, for 

 instance, besides other pools, with reeds, rushes, &c., gi'owing in them. — H. Pryek. 



Dipterous larvce voided by the human subject. — The enclosed larva was sent to 

 me from Gloucester to be named ; can you assist me ? It was taken from between 

 the bed-sheets of an old imbecile patient who was very dirty in his habits. During 

 life it was of a faint cream-colour, with a black spot on the head. It was very 

 active. — G. J. Hearder, Joint Counties Asylum, Carmarthen, Aug. 21th, 1868. 



[This larva is evidently Dipterous, and Professor Westwood, to whom we 

 submitted it, says it is tliat of an Anthomyia (MuscidceJ, and was no doubt voided 

 from the intestines of the patient. Similar instances are recorded in his " Intro- 

 duction," vol. ii., p. 571, and a table of the numerous records of like occurrences 

 may be found in a paper by the Rev. F. W. Hope, in the Transactions of the Ento- 

 mological Society of London, ser. 1, vol. ii., pp. 266-268, in which the fanciful term 

 " Myasis " is used to denote the supposed disease occasioned by Dipterous larva) 

 in man. Their presence is no doubt due to depraved and vicious appetite. They 

 live naturally in animal excrement, decayed vegetable matters, &c. — Eds.] 



On the Natural History of Acronycta alni. — On Monday evening, July 20th, I 

 was looking over some standard roses growing upon a bank on one side of the drive 

 in front of this house, when I noticed upon a leaf what appeared to be a recent 

 deposit of the same nature as that, which proved so injurious to Tobit's eyesight. 

 A nearer inspection, however, resolved it into a nondescript Lepidopterous larva, 

 half doubled round upon itself, and resting upon a slight silken pad. I will 

 endeavour to describe it. Its length was about 10 lines : head small, dark brown, 

 somewhat deeply notched above : body rather slender, of uniform thickness : colour 

 dark dirty brown, gradually paler towards the belly, except the last three segments, 

 which were white, with the ground colour faintly showing through : upon each 

 segment were conspicuous black warts, small but conspicuously raised, bearing 

 short slender brown bristles of the ordinary type, except those on the post-capital 

 segment, which were slightly clubbed. Legs sixteen. Whole body very glossy, 

 appealing as if varnished, 



I confess that I was quite at fault, and unable to " put a name on " the 

 creature (as they say in the Isle of Man), even after consulting every available 

 book ; and I must regret that I did not at the moment indite a more minute des- 

 cription of this — the early stage, which seems to be little known, of a famous 

 caterpillar, for before morning it had effected a wondrous transformation indeed, 

 and appeared as a full-blown and unmistakeable larva of A. alni. 



Its sombre garb doflfed, and in due course devoured, after the manner of its 

 kind, my capture presented itself to my delighted eyes in black velvet suit, broadly 

 slashed with gold, and bristling with those pecuhai- tags which are the distin- 

 guishing badge of A. alni in embryo. For food, it at once selected the leaves of the 

 lime from the many submitted to its choice rejecting entiivly those of the rose, upon 

 which it was found, and of the Spanish chestnut, which was the nearest tree whence 



