Entomological Society. 65 



thorax in his specimen is strongly toothed as in many species of 

 Prionus. — From the body of an unfortunate goat, carried off by a 

 leopard some days since, I have lately taken three species of Necro- 

 phori ; one species large, i. e. 1 \ inch, and wholly black ; the second 

 black with red patches, ^ inch ; and the third I suspect is a shade 

 removed from, or may be, a Necrodes. The male and female are both 

 black, but the former is easily distinguished by the form of the pos- 

 terior thighs, which are strongly incrassate. AH these insects if not 

 very strongly pressed when ta]:en smell of musk, but their stench 

 is intolerable if roughly handled. A largish species of red ant forms 

 its nest among the leaves of mangoe trees. I have not yet met a 

 description of it, though it cannot have escaped so long, being not 

 only common, but the insect is a perfect nuisance to all pic-nic-ians, 

 and must have drawn attention. The queens or females, when 

 winged, are a very fine apple-green in the colour of body. I took 

 them from the nest near Mhow at several times. The web which 

 they elaborate from the mouth will bear writing on, and take ink as 

 legibly as paper. I never saw any but red w^orkers making the 

 web. In this country the natives use them for the purpose of get- 

 ting rid of wasps' nests (though I do think the remedy equally bad 

 with the cure). The branch on which the colony has formed its 

 leafy home is carefully cut through and transported to the vicinity 

 of the wasps, and in a few days a total extirpation of the latter ensues. 

 The ground is covered with the bodies of the Vespce, and the ants 

 go about biting every human being that they happen to crawl on. 

 Is not the remedy as I stated } It is however only used when the 

 wasps are in a chopper or thatched roof, and not easily to be got at 

 for extirpation. I have never observed their nests but on the 

 mangoe tree and Ficus Indica. I would wish to know if the com- 

 mon cabbage in England is ever infested with an apode (?) Acarus, 

 or something allied thereto, and resembling a flask. Here I have 

 taken them for the first time, and for some time doubted my own 

 eyes, even with a microscope to help them. The creature is fully 

 one-third of an inch long, but the snout or mouth is so minute as to 

 require the aid above-mentioned*.— I have lately taken quantities 

 of Colliuris ; the larger one with black legs is a different species 

 from those with red. Of this I doubted some time ago, but all my 

 suspicions are now perfectly set at rest." 



December 1st. — The Rev. F. W. Hope, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Bedell exhibited a specimen of Anacampsis alacella of Zeller 

 and Fischer, a species new to Britain, which he had captured on 

 Leatherhead Common on the 17th of August last. 



Mr. Edward Doubleday exhibited a box of Lepidoptera from the 

 highest range of tlie Rocky Mountains in North America, collected 

 by Mr. Burke, the majority of which were strikingly analogous to 

 European species, including a species oi Parnassius, a genus hitherto 

 found only in the Old World, although Dr. Boisduval had suggested 



* [Probahlv a female Coccus of an Uiulescribed species.] 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xix. 5 



