6640 



Insects. 



sylvestris). The pupa, which is enclosed in a rather closely-spun earthen cocoon, has 

 the abdomen very much curtailed and sharply pointed, the eyes black and very pro- 

 minent, the thorax and wing-cases spotted with black, the latter much ribbed. The 

 spots do not appear for a week or two after the caterpillar has turned, and till then the 

 pupa is a uniform pale yellowish red-colour. The perfect insect appears from April 

 to July. In confinement I have occasionally had the earlier fed July larva produce 

 the perfect insect in August. — 77. Harpur Crewe; July 9, 1859. 



Description of the Larva of Eupithccia venosnta. — This larva is by no means un- 

 common, though the perfect insect- is seldom seen. It is also very easy to rear. It is 

 short, thick and stumpy. Back dull leaden gray, sparingly studded with minute 

 white spots and short hairs. Belly and sides dirty greenish white. Head black. It 

 feeds inside the seed-capsules of the bladder campion (Si/ene inflata) and the com- 

 mon red Lychnis {Lychnis dioica), and is full-fed from the middle to the end of July. 

 When ready to assume the pupa state it comes out of the capsule and enters the 

 earth, where it spins a very slight cocoon, and turns to a bright red chrysalis. It is 

 very subject to the attacks of ichneumons. The perfect insect appears from the 

 beginning to the end of May. When quite young the larva is black. — Id. 



Occurrence of Eraslria venustula in Eppinr/ Forest. — I have met with this insect 

 two years running, at Lough ton, in Epping Forest, having taken two last year and 

 four this. They were all taken in the month of June, flying low down among the 

 herbage at dusk. Upon the wing they are very inconspicuous, and appear to be 

 partial to thickets. The species would appear to be generally distributed over the 

 Forest. Had I known the rarity of the insect I might have taken some forty or fifty ; 

 but unfortunately I, in common with most of the gentlemen who have taken it, mis- 

 took it for a Tortrix ; and when I had taken enough to represent the species in my 

 own collection I did not care to catch more. Specimens were exhibited by Mr. 

 Eedles at the Haggerstone Entomological Society on the 14th instant. — H. W. 

 Killingback ; 10, Oldham Place, Coppice Row, July 14, 1859. 



Note on the parasitic Grubs found in the Brain of the Harte-beest and the Gnu. — 

 Mr. Ayres, of Natal, in a letter which I lately received from him, informs me that the 

 41 large kind of antelope, here called the Harte-beest, has invariably a number of large 

 white maggots in the brain, each the best part of an inch long, which do not seem to 

 affect the health of the animal at all." Captain W. R. King, in his work entitled 

 ' Campaigning in Kaffir-land,' second edition, p. 306, gives the following account of a 

 similar phenomenon in a bull gnu, or Wilde-beest, which he shot near the Caledon 

 River: — "We had often heard that the brain of the Wilde-beest harbours gentles or 

 grubs, to which its wild extraordinary vagaries are by some attributed ; and being 

 anxious to ascertain the truth of such a phenomenon, the head was opened by Dr. 

 Fayson, R.A., in the presence of a number of officers. To the disappointment of the 

 sceptics and the astonishment of all, in the very centre of the brain, still quite warm, 

 there was found a large maggot, which when put on the table wriggled across it with 

 great activity." A friend of mine who was present on the occasion referred to by 

 Captain King assures me that the account contained in that officer's work, and quoted 

 abov e, is strictly accurate. Can any of the readers of the ' Zoologist ' throw any light 

 on this very curious subject? — J. II. Gurney ; 24, Kensington Palace Gardens, 

 July 16, 1859. [I cannot avoid feeling a doubt as to the exact site of these larvae, 

 which arc probably those of the dipterous genus (Estrus. — E. Newman.'] 



