72 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



In the same connection, Prof. Riley presented to the Society 

 a female Megilla metadata which he had found recently 

 devouring the egg-masses of Hyphantria, and which subse 

 quently laid a batch of eggs. Neither the eggs nor the larvae 

 of this very common ladybird have hitherto been described or 

 recorded, and he will take occasion to refer to them more fully 

 at some future meeting. 



Relating to the notes on Sphecius, Mr. Schwarz said that in 

 the literature this insect is always treated as an enemy of the 

 Periodical Cicada, and asked if Sphecius had ever been 

 observed to attack C. septendecim. He said that the Periodical 

 Cicada always appears several weeks earlier than C. pruinosa 

 or any other Cicada, and that Sphecius appears in conjunction 

 with C, pruinosa, from which it was unlikely that this wasp 

 has an opportunity of preying upon Cicada septendecim. 



Prof. Riley showed that the periods of Sphecius and C. septen 

 decim, and also the common Dogday Cicada, overlapped, and 

 that the general belief that 5. speciosus attacks the Periodical 

 Cicada, while not based, as far as he recalled, on observation, 

 was probably well founded. 



He said that in 1885, when the C. septendecim was abun 

 dant, he had been interested in the comparison of the notes 

 of the two species. He believed also that Sphecius often 

 occurs in June or before C. pruinosa, though he had never seen 

 it using any other species than this last. So far as there 

 might arise a question based on the smaller size of the Period 

 ical Cicada, Prof. Riley said that in the case of Sphecius and 

 other parasites the larva adapted itself, to a great extent, to 

 the amount of food supplied by its host. 



Mr. Howard exhibited specimens of the Sand Cricket, 

 Stenopelmatus fasciatus, which had recently been sent to Prof. 

 Riley by one of his correspondents. Mr. Howard stated that 

 they occurred abundantly in the southwest, and were reported 

 erroneously to be extremely poisonous. He quoted Prof. 

 Riley, in the Standard Natural History, to the effect that they 

 are carnivorous in habit. 



Mr. Schwarz stated that these crickets are very common 

 under stones in the west, occurring in company with a 



