6286 



Insects. 



broke up a specimen, and examined the portions under a compound microscope, using 

 a Natchet, No. 4. The head and thorax were clean, but on a portion of the sternum 

 were innumerable very minute, linear, slightly curved bodies, showing the well-known 

 oscillatory or swaiming motion. Notwithstanding the agreement of these minute 

 bodies with the characters of the genus of Bacterium of the Vibrionia, I regarded 

 ihem as spermatia, having frequently seen others undislinguishable from them under 

 circumstances inconsistent with the presence of Confervse, as in the interior of the im- 

 mature peridia and sporangia of Fungals. In the specimen first examined there were 

 no other indications of the growth of any parasite ; but from the interior of the abdo- 

 men of a second bee I obtained an abundance of well-defined globular bodies 

 resembling the spores of a fungus, varying in size from '00016 in. to •00012 in. Three 

 out of four specimens subsequently examined contained similar spores within the abdo- 

 men. No traces of a mycelium were visible ; the plants had come to maturity, fruited, 

 and withered away, leaving only the spores. The chief question then remaining to be 

 solved was as to the time when the spores were developed ; whether before or after the 

 death of the bees. In order, if possible, to determine this, I placed four of the dead 

 bees in circumstances favorable to the development of the spores, and in about ten 

 days I submitted them again to examination : they were covered with mould, con- 

 sisting chiefly of a species of Mucor, and one also of Botrytis or Botryosporium. These 

 Fungi were clearly extraneous, covering indifferently all parts of the insects, and 

 spreading on the wood on which they were lying. On the abdomen of all the speci- 

 mens, and on the clypeus of one of them, grew a fungus wholly unlike the surrounding 

 mould. It was white and very short, and apparently consisted entirely of spores 

 arranged in a moniliform manner, like the fertile filaments of a stemless Penicilium. 

 These spores resembled those found in the abdomen of the bees, and proceeded, 

 T think, from them. The filaments were most numerous at the junction of the seg- 

 ments. The spores did not resemble the globules in Sporendonema Muscae of the 

 ' English Flora,' neither were they apparently enclosed/'-— Proc. Linn, Soc. 1857. 



Black specimen of Cicindela campestris. — I have a Cicindela campestris which is 

 entirely black, excepting the mouth and spots, which are of the usual cream colour. 

 1 wish to know if such a variety be uncommon or rare. — Thomas Chapman ; Bothwell 

 JStreet, Glasgow, October 26, 1858. 



Reappearance of Scolytus rugulosus at Greemvich, — Scolytus rugulosus has again 

 made its appearance, assuming the perfect state early in June. Cossus ligniperda 

 and Trochilium Myopaeforme have also emerged from the same pear-tree as that from 

 ■which I obtained Scolytus rugulosus. — W, Groves; 12, Morden Place, Leivisham 

 Road, October, 1858. 



Beetles at Lee. — On the afternoon of the 12th inst. Dr. Power called on me, and 

 proposed an excursion to the favourite hunting-ground known as " the sallow pit," 

 in the fields at Lee. The pond, the beloved retreat of water-beetles, is no more, — the 

 lieat has been too much for it, and its fluids have evaporated. It might have been 

 thought that the Hydradephaga had gone off to " fresh fields and pastures new," and so 

 doubtless some of them have, but others, of a clannish nature, still hold on to the place 

 of their nativity, their last refuge being a little hole containing about a pailful of 

 water and a foot of mud. This reservoir, hidden b^ Sparganium, was accidentally 

 discovered by a boy, who, while rushing away from some angry bees whose nest he 

 had wantonly destroyed, put one of his legs into it as far as the knee; when he drew 

 it out uf the Stygian compound his equanimity was considerably disturbed as well 



