ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE. 287 



vines by Altica oleraceay which, for ten or eleven years, has 

 been the scourge of the neighbourhood of Montpeher. Great 

 quantities of them are destroyed every year: in one district 

 alone they collected a hundred quintals. Thq perfect insect 

 gnaws the buds, and the larvae eat the leaves and the grapes." 



M. GuERiN exhibited a fragment of a branch of the horse- 

 chestnut sent to him by M. Aube, in the interior of which the 

 larva of Briiophila Alc/w had taken up its habitation. This 

 peculiarity in the economy of this larva was before entirely un- 

 known. It was only known that the larva fed on those lichens 

 which grow on the bark of trees, and in which it usually con- 

 structs its little cocoon against the bark, and composed of the 

 fragments of the lichen. The larva brought by M. Guerin did 

 not leave its hole : M. Rombur, in order to examine it more 

 closely, broke off a part of the branch, and the larva did not 

 remain long exposed, but dug its way further in, throwing 

 behind it debris, which resembled fine sawdust. 



M. Serville gave an account of the work of M. Vibert 

 on the Larva of the common Cockchafer, and remarked on the 

 new discoveries recorded in this book. This observation 

 related more especially to the period occupied in the full deve- 

 lopment of the insect, which is three complete years. This 

 larva encircles the plant just below the ground, to devour it at 

 its leisure ; and itself serves as the food of the mole-cricket, 

 which insect destroys an immense number of them, but which 

 itself causes great injury by eating through the roots of those 

 plants which oppose its progress. 



M. Serville read the following note, extracted from the 

 Cabinet de Lecture of the 29th June last. " A German paper 

 states, that a Society formed at Quedlinbourg has collected 

 nineteen million cockchafers, for the purpose of extracting oil 

 from them. The experiment had been previously made in 

 Hungary, and three measures of oil had been extracted from 

 eight measures of cockchafers. The insects were placed in pots 

 of earth, which were covered with straw, and then with net- 

 work of metallic threads ; then the whole was placed upside 

 down on a heated utensil destined to receive the oil, which 

 flowed from the insects. This oil will be particularly service- 

 able in greasing wheels." 



M. Chevrolat announced that he had received from Porto 

 Rio a species of Carabus, which he named basilaris, and of 



