THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 75 
three young ‘ wagtails, I saw the old ones repeatedly bring 
the young ones butterflies (Heteronympha merope), and my 
boys said that they saw other ‘ wagtails’ catching and eating 
a white kind of butterfly—very numerous just now—and that 
- they saw a ‘ pee-wee’ (Gralina australis) eating the same kind 
of butterfly.” 
CAvTeRPILLARS AND Ants.—Herr H. Vrehmeyer, Reissiger- 
str. 21, Dresden, Germany, is anxious to obtain larve of 
Australian Lycinide and the ants associated with them. Herr 
Vrehmeyer is making a special study of this subject. Can any 
of our members help him ? 
Excuances Destrep.—Dr. Hans Brauns, Willowmore, Cape 
Colony, S. Africa, is desirous of obtaining Australian bees and 
other Hymenoptera (named or unnamed); in return he will 
send African insects. G. Van Roon, 26 Pijnackerstraal, No. 
18, Rotterdam, Holland, asks for Lucanide Carabidae, Bupres- 
tide, Cerambycide, and Cicindelidw, for which he offers 
Indo-Malayan, African, or European beetles. 
Mosquitors anv Burrerrty Pur®.—The larve, or “wrigglers,” 
of mosquitoes feed on vegetable or decaying matter, but the 
adults are mixed feeders. Asa rule, the latter feed on vege- 
table juices; but all animals are liable to be attacked by them, 
and even some insects. A. naturalist has recorded mosquitoes 
as destroying large numbers of butterfly pups in South 
America. It would be interesting to know if any of: our Aus- 
tralian species are similarly persecuted. 
Fieas AND Disease.—Mr. Carl F. Baker, in “The American 
Naturalist,” vol. xxix. (1905), shows that the fleas of rats in 
the warmer regions of the earth are close relatives of the flea 
specific to human beings, and thus far more likely to bite 
human beings than are the fleas in the colder regions, which 
are only distantly related! to Pulex irritans, Linn. My. Baker also 
states that Dr. Carrasquilo, of Bogata, has found the bacillus 
of Hansen (leprosy) in the intestinal canal of fleas. 
Burrerrty Dastroyers.—Mr. J. Kershaw, in Transactions 
of the Entomological Society of London (1905), reviews the 
factors in the elimination of butterflies by other animals as he 
observed them in S§. China. The list includes Spiders, flies, 
ants, bugs, centipedes, lizards, and birds. His notes suggest 
that butterflies which have escaped the sundry and manifold 
dangers of the egg, larva, and pupa stages have collectively 
little to fear in the perfect state. 
TurRestriaL Mire Apaprep to. Marine Lire.—N. Passerini 
has recently discovered a terrestrial mite lurking among the 
blocks of rock deposited around the base of the tower of 
Meloria (Italy), where prolonged immersion in salt water is 
inevitable. The mite, which Dr. Berlese has named Hrythreus 
