1875.. 213 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a fine collection of Rymenoptera sent from Calcutta by 

 Mr. Rotlmcj. It included may remarkable species, the most interesting being a new 

 species of Xomia witli capitate antenna?, and Rhyiichhim transversnm attacked 

 bv Sli/lops. 



Mr. Grut exhibited a number of very small Mantidm in spirits, sent from Sarawak 

 (Borneo) by Mr. Do Crespiguy, who termed them " Mantis-Ants," and staied that 

 they appeared in a column marching across his table, each with its tail upturned. 

 Some (at least) of the specimens had decided rudimentary wings ; but it was sug- 

 gested that they formed a newly-hatched brood. 



Mr. McLachlan mentioned that on the evening of the 3rd January, barely two 

 days after the breaking up of one of the most severe and continuous frosts experienced 

 for many years, the gas-lamps in his neighbourhood were frequented by hosts of 

 Cheimatobla brumata, and asked the opinion of the Members present as to whether 

 they had just emerged from the pupti-state, or had lived through the three weeks of 

 hard frost ; a point upon which there seemed to be some difference of opinion. 



NOTES OX. COLEOPTERA FROM SOUTH MOROCCO. 

 BY TROYET BLACKMOEE. 



During a stay of some weeks in the early part of 1874, at Mogador (S.W. coast 

 of Morocco) , I obtained many Coleoptera ; and on my return to England, my friend 

 Mr. H. W. Bates added to my collection a number of specimens captured by Dr. 

 Hooker during his botanical explorations in the Great Atlas in 1871. As Mogador 

 has been but little explored cntomologically, and Dr. Hooker's specimens were 

 collected in a district never previously visited by a naturalist, the following record, 

 supplemented by diagnoses by Messrs. Bates and WoUaston of several of the new 

 species detected, may not be uninteresting. 



My own collection was made under adverse circumstances, the winter being an 

 unusually dry one, and as such, unfavourable for the oocurrcncc of Coleoptera ; and 

 considerations of health not allowing me to make long excursions, or to work very 

 liard. The unsettled state of the district at tlie time of my visit, moreover, rendered 

 it imprudent for a stranger to go to any distance from the town, unless under tlie 

 protection of a mounted escort : my collecting was therefore conflned almost 

 exclusively to the immediate neighbourhood of the town, wliich looks about as 

 unpromising a spot for a coleopterist as can well be conceived. The town is built 

 on a reef of rocks running out to sea, and, seen from the anchorage in the bay, the 

 surrounding land for many miles presents nothing to the eye but a succession of 

 utterly barren sand-hills. Such is, in fact, tlie character of the country, except that, 

 innncdiately behind the town, on its eastern side, is a long strip of flat, cbiycy ground, 

 Bomewliat below the sea level, which, during the prevalence of certain winds, is 

 covered to the depth of a few inches with brackish water, whicli percolates heneath 

 the sand-hills lying between it and the beach. This water, liowever, speedily dis- 

 appears, and tlie sui-face of the ground is then covered with Conferva and white 

 crystals formed by evaporation. At the edge of this marsh (if it may be so called) 

 is a scanty growth of species of Salicornia, and plants of kindred genera. These, 

 with a few grasses and small plants found growing in moist spots caused by the 

 leakage from an aqueduct by which Mogador is supplied with fresh water, comprise 

 all the botanical wealth to bo met with in a two miles' radius of the town. To this 



