514 PROCEFDINGS OF THE 



Notes were read from Dr. Buckland and the Rev. M. E. 

 Berkeley on the vegetable nature of various excrescences 

 occasionally observed upon insects ; the disease to which the 

 house-fly is subject in autumn being, according to Mr. Berkeley, 

 caused by the presence of a minute fungus, and not being a 

 plethoric kind of disease, as supposed by some writers. Mr. 

 Westwood communicated various observations recently made 

 on this subject, and upon the analogous parasitism of insects 

 upon the bodies of insects ; stating the occurrence of one of 

 the Strepsiptera in Ammophila sabulosa, one of the sand- 

 wasps. A large larva of one of the Lamellicorn beetles was 

 also exhibited, from the collection of the Rev. F. W. Hope, from 

 which a fungus nearly two inches long had been produced. 



The following memoirs were read : — 



1. On the destruction of the black caterpillar of the turnips 

 by poultry. By Mr. Sells. 



2. MonogTRTph on the genus Holoptilus. By Mr. Westwood. 



3. Conclusion of a memoir on the different species of insects 

 employed in various parts of the world as food. By the Rev. 

 F. W. Hope. 



Sitting of the 7th May, 1838. 



J. F. Stephens, Esq. in the Chair. 



Mr. Sells exhibited specimens of the rare Copris lunaris, 

 and of the curious cocoon in which it passes the pupa state. 



Mr. AsHTON presented a figure of a specimen of Notonecta 

 furcata^ infested by a minute parasite, which attaches itself to 

 its legs. 



Mr. Aldous presented his highly magnifiied figure of the 

 head of a flea, as represented under the solar microscope ; ex- 

 hibited all the parts of the mouth, respecting which so much 

 uncertainty has prevailed. 



Various other exhibitions were made by members, and a 

 discussion took place as to the nature of the food of the bot of 

 the horse; Mr. Sells maintaining, that it was nourished by fluids 

 from the vascular structure of the horse's stomach, in opposition 

 to the opinion of Mr. Bracy Clark, that they fed upon chyme or 

 chyle. 



The Rev. F. W. Hope communicated a table of the genera 

 and species of insects infested by Filariw, and other parasatic 

 worms. 



