EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
Mr. A. Smith Woodward, in this month's issue of the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' has announced the discovery of an extinct Eel (Urenchelys anglicus) in the English Chalk. The writer observes:—"There is thus no doubt that the Apodal fishes date back to the Cretaceous period...... A well-preserved skull of a typical Eel from the Lower Chalk of Clayton, Sussex, is to be recognized in the Willett Collection in the Brighton Museum."
At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, held at Calcutta in January last, Major Alcock exhibited some enlarged drawings of the well-known caterpillar of the Notodontid moth, Stauropus alternus, and remarked:—"These caterpillars, which can be found in Calcutta and its vicinity in the rainy season, are as extraordinary in look as they are in behaviour. When touched they turn the hinder end of the body over on to the back, in the manner of an enraged Scorpion, and then begin to tremble as if agitated by the most uncontrollable emotion. There are certain particularly irascible Ants that behave somewhat in the same way, and there can be little doubt that the suggestion which has been made that the attitude of the alarmed Stauropus caterpillar may be mistaken by its enemies for the offensive posture of an Ant of enormous dimensions is somewhere near the truth. The insects that accompany these drawings are common enough during the monsoon in Calcutta, and I recommend them to your further notice. No observer can watch their behaviour without admiration. Of their power to terrify creatures like birds, whose high æsthetic and emotional development cannot but be accompanied by at least the germs of superstition, there can be no uncertainty."
Mr. de Nicéville, in criticising these remarks, considered that, although perhaps the "scares" might frighten birds, their most important function was to terrify ichneumon-flies and parasitic Diptera, which were far the most active enemies that caterpillars had to contend against. For this reason he thought that the more commonly received idea that the Stauropus caterpillar, when irritated, resembled a Spider was nearer to the truth.
We have received the Report for the year 1899 relating to the Ghizeh Zoological Gardens, near Cairo, by the Director, Stanley S. Flower, F.Z.S.
