]^20 [October, 1865. 



thirteen on one posterior wing, and fourteen on the other. Mr. Stainton also called 

 attention to the number of Chelifers ho had found this autumn, attached to the 

 legs of the house-fly, some flies having as many as thi-ee on one leg. He could not 

 imagine for what pui*pose the Chelifers attached themselves to the flics, and 

 dissented from Dr. Hagen's supposition that it was for the pursose of being 

 transported from one locality to another, as, according to his observations, they did 

 not quit the flies until the latter died. 



Mr. Baly remarked, with respect to the recorded scarcity of wasps thit 

 autumn, that he had received information from Scotland stating that these insects 

 were abundant there. The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Stone, confirming the 

 accounts of their scarcity in England, and stating that the larvsD had been attacked 

 by a disease, which destroyed them in large numbers. Mr. Smith also said that at 

 Bournemouth last autumn wasps appeared in great abundance, whereas this 

 autumn he had not seen a single one in the same locaHty. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited pods of Epilohium montanum, received from Mr. Barrett, 

 attacked by the larvae of Laverna suh-iistrHgella; and beautiful drawings, illustrating 

 the larva and its mode of life. 



Professor Westwood called the attention of the meeting to the exhibition of 

 economic entomology, which he had lately visited at Paris, and made some remarks 

 on some of the more interesting subjects contained therein, viz., old account books 

 destroyed by Termes lucifugus from the South of France ; nests of the South 

 American honey -producing wasp, Myrapetra scutella/ris ; and the large collection of 

 bee-hives, some of them of novel and interesting construction. He also called 

 attention to the large collection of sUks, exhibited by M. Guerin-Meneville, including 

 the silk from the Ailantlius silk-worm, and remarked that the French silk merchants 

 were commencing to import the Ailantine silk direct from China. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited the remarkably small example of T/yccena Alexis, 

 recorded in the last number of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, page 92. 



Mr. Stevens exhibited a selection of Golecyptera from a collection received from 

 Mr. Andersson, and collected in Damara Land, South Africa ; these included fine 

 species of Eudicella, Cheirolasea, Manticora, Sfc. 



The Secretary read an extract from a letter of a correspondent of one of the 

 daily papers, stating that, after the inauguration of the statue of the late Prince 

 Consort at Cobourg, an alarm was raised that smoke was issuing fram the spire of 

 Cobourg Cathedral, when a scaS'olding was hastily erected and water taken up ; 

 the man who reached the spot was seen to be making singular motions, and, on 

 descending, reported that the appearance of smoke was caused by a swarm of 

 winged ants, which had completely covered him. 



Mr. Wormald remarked that, on the previous Saturday, he had seen a similar 

 swarm of ants on the top of the dome of St. Alban's Cathedral. 



Professor Westwood called attention to a memoii* by Mr. A. S. Packard, Jun. 

 (an American entomologist), on a species of Myma/r with the wings deeply 

 divided into two portions ; and remarked that he had a monograph in pre- 

 paration on some Hymenopterous insects, one of which presented a similar 

 pecidiarity. 



