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71 



Entomological Society of Londox : 4th Juli/, 1877.— Prof. Westwood, 

 M.A., F.L.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Douglas exhibited a living example of Ceramhyx Cerdo, Liu., found in the 

 heart of a log of oak from Bosnia when it was sawn into planks in London. 



The President exhibited some curious hcliciform larva-cases of a species of 

 Trichoptera, he believed European, and drew attention to their semi-transparency, 

 due to the nature of the siliceous material of which they were in part composed. 

 The cases were desci'ibed by Swainson in 1840 as shells of the genus Thelidomns, 

 Div. Turbinece. {Helicopsyche. — R. McL.). 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited a female Cicada montana, Scop., taken in his presence 

 in the Iv'ew Forest in June, the captor having been led to the place by the noise the 

 insect made ; and with reference to the reputed want of means in the female to pro- 

 duce a sound, Mr. Weir said that he had examined this one microscopically and 

 found that it was furnished with very small drums. 



Mr. Douglas said that these small drums were only representative and not sonorous 

 like the larger ones of the male, in which sex only of the Cicadce, according to all 

 observation hitherto recorded, the power and practice of stridulation existed, and 

 he suggested that a male sitting contiguous to the female captured, but unobserved, 

 had produced the sound in the present instance, and that instead of Orpheus 

 Eurydice had been taken. Further, he said, that the male C. montana was reputed 

 to be mute, although it is probable it could make a faint stridulation. (See Trans. 

 Eut. Soc, 2 ser., iv, Proceed., p. 65). 



The President thought the statement of the power of the female Cicada to pro- 

 duce a sound had not been established, and all notices of the music of the Cicada 

 from antiquity till novv attributed tJie power of stridulation to the male sex only, 

 citing the words of the old Rhodian poet Xenaivhus — • 

 " Happy the Cicadas' lives. 

 Since they all have voiceless wives " — 

 as an example of the historical testimony. 



Mr. Mansell Weale said he had captured hundreds of Cicada in South Africa, 

 and invariably it was the male sex only that was musical. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited two living examples of Tillus unifasciatus, taken ou 

 oak palings at Norwood in company with a profusion of Lyctvs oblongus, on which 

 beetle the President said it was probable they were parasitic. Mr. Stevens said the 

 Tilli were exceedingly active, flying on and off the palings during the sunshine, but 

 there were not many of them. 



The President exhibited a Hemipterous insect, one of the Capsidce, received 

 alive from Dr. A. Wallace, of Colchester, by whom it had been found on -a plant of 

 Cattleya Aclaiulce, imported from Eahia. A leaf of the orchid was covered with 

 blisters, cause doubtless by the punctures made by the insect. The species belonged 

 evidently to the genus Stiphrosoma, the surface of the body was orange, the anterior 

 margin of the elytra also broadly of this colour, but the rest of the disc and clavus 

 dark steel-blue, very much rcsembing IS. amabilis, Dougl. and Scott, from Palestine 

 (E. M. M., V, 130). 



Mr. Mansell Weale exhibited a fine collection of insects, chiefly Lepidoptera, 

 made by him in South Africa, including a large number of Fapilio Merope reared 

 from the larvne, and showing a very great amount of variation in form and colour. He 

 also read some observations on the geographical distribution of the Fauna and Flora 

 of South Africa, and the inter-dcpcndcncc of their respective variation, as illustrated 

 by the insects exhibited. 



The President brought under the Society's notice the accounts of the recent 

 appearance of the Colorado beetle at Cologne and Ontario ; and Mr. May handed in 

 a copy of the Memorandum relating to this insect issued by the Canadian Minister 

 of Agriculture. 



The Secretary read a letter from the Secretary of the Crichton Eoyal Institution 

 of Dumfries, stating that Colias Edusa had been common in that district during the 

 month of June. 



