Entomological Society, 495 



March 3rd.— The Rev. F. W. Hope, F.R.S. (who had been elected 

 President at the adjourned Anniversary Meeting), in the Chair. 

 The President nominated W. Spence, Thomas Marshall and W. 



W. Saunders, Esqrs., and Captain Parry, to act as Vice-Presidents. 

 Mr. Ingpen exhibited a remarkably fine specimen of amber, or 



gum anime, inclosing a small butterfly and numerous other insects. 



The following papers were read : — 



Extracts from a letter addressed by Captain Boyes to Mr. West- 

 wood, containing notices of the habits of the Termites and other in- 

 sects of India. 



On carefully examining the nests of the white ants, the hissing 

 noise described by some author (Smeathman ?) was very distinctly 

 heard by Captain Boyes, who ascertained that it was caused by the 

 fluttering of the wings when the Termes is in its perfect state. At the 

 commencement of the rainy season he several times prevented the 

 exit of the perfect insects from their nest, which was in one of his 

 room- walls, by pouring spirits of turpentine down the orifices into 

 the nest, which kept them prisoners for several days ; afterwards he 

 plastered up the orifice with mortar, and after a month's confine- 

 ment he allowed them to swarm, when however they all appeared to 

 be of one sex (males), running over the tables in myriads, not a single 

 specimen being observed to shed its wings, which is an operation 

 voluntarily performed by the females when (as he supposes) they 

 have paired, after which also the male sheds his wings. 



Details, accompanied with coloured drawings, were also given of 

 the transformations of a species of Anthrenus, and of several pre- 

 viously described species of Sphinx, Bombyx, and butterflies. 



Extracts from a letter addressed to Mr. Westwood by R. Tem- 

 pleton, Esq., on the Bite of the Scolopendra in Ceylon. 



Since his previous communication the author had seen two in- 

 stances which show that the bites of Scolopendra are not so in- 

 nocent as he therein stated them to be. Lieut. M , of strumous 



habit, was bitten by Scolopendra pallipes of his catalogue, on the fore- 

 head just above the root of the nose. He states that the pain was 

 pungent for at least half an hour or longer ; the forehead swelled 

 very much, and his upper eyelids so much as to close the eyes com- 

 pletely. Cold lotion was applied and soon reduced the swelling, the 

 two punctures only remaining. A gunner a few days afterwards 

 was bitten by another of the same species on the dorsum of the foot, 

 and he states that he was awakened by the pain ; the Scolopendra 

 was killed in his bed ; two small punctures appeared, his foot near 

 the marks swelled a little, but it disappeared totally in a few hours 

 by poulticing. He states the pain also to have been as if chillie was 

 rubbed into it, but it soon disappeared. His stomach and bowels 

 were much out of order at the time — rather bilious or so. 



Mr. Newport, in reference to the poisonous properties of the Sco- 

 lopendrcE, stated that Lithobius was also poisonous, at least to its own 

 tribe, as observed by DeGeer ; and that Scolopendra possesses a di- 

 stinct secretory apparatus, provided with a poison- gland ending in 



