2S2 [May, IS-' 



Mr. 0. O. Waterliouse exhibited &\iYingexamip\e of Monohammus Heros bred in 

 England from foreign timber. He also I'ead the first part of a paper on the 

 Lamellicorns of Japan, including 40 new species. 



5th April, 1875. — The President in the Chair. 



W. L. Distant, Esq., of Strcatham College, Dulwich, was elected an ordinary 

 member. 



Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited a nmnber of juvenile 3IantidcB that had emerged 

 from an egg-case received from Ceylon, and remarked on their great resemblance to 

 those recently exhibited from Borneo. 



Mr. Bond exhibited a locust found alive at the bottom of a dry well at Brighton 

 in February. The species was uncertain. 



Mr. Scaly read notes on the habits of the species of Ornilhoptera from the 

 IMalabar coast exhibited at the last meeting. The insect was allied to 0. Amphrisius, 

 but there appeared ^to be doubt as to its identity with that species. The pupa 

 possessed the power of causing a sound. He called attention to a peculiarity in the 

 formation of the hind-wings of the ^ , there being a large pouch on the anal margin 

 filled with flufPy hairs. 



Mr. McLachlan read extracts from a letter received from Pueblo, Colorado, in 

 wliich the writer stated that in opening his potato-pits in winter, he had found the 

 potato-beetle (Doryphora 10-lineataJ moving briskly and eating greedily, and 

 expressed an opinion that if the importation of potatoes into England were not 

 soon stopped, the beetle would soon be hove. Mr. McLachlan also read a note by 

 Lieut. Carpenter of the United States Geological Survey, contained in the reports of 

 the Zoological collections made by liim in Colorado in 1873 (Washington: 1875). 

 Lieut. Carpenter stated that not a single specimen of the beetle had been seen east of 

 the dividing range. He was of opinion that the insect was dispersed solely by means of 

 seed-potatoes, as it was of sluggish habits and incapable of spreading widely by its 

 own instinct. Its absence from the Salt Lake Basin might be accounted for from the 

 fact of the cheapness of vegetables in the Mormon settlements not rendering it 

 necessary to import potatoes. 



Mr. Bates alluded to the original home of the insect, which he thought was the 

 eastern plateaus of the Eocky Mountains, and he had seen it in large numbers from 

 the jilateau surrounding the city of Mexico. He thought that the chance of immunity 

 from it in Europe ^-ested more with climatic conditions than anything else, for 

 although the extremes of heat and cold in those parts of America where it was now 

 proving destructive were greater than hero in England, yet it was not there 

 subjected to the gi*eat moisture of our climate which would possibly bo fatal to it. 

 In connection with this, he alluded to the gi'eat similarity of the insect-fauna of 

 California (where the beetle had not appeared), and other parts of North- Western 

 America with that of Western Europe, a similarity greater than that which existed 

 between om" fauna and that of the nearer eastern States of America. 



Mr. S. Stevens said he had received the beetle in large munbers from Orizaba. 



Mr. Jenner Weir alluded to the steps taken by our Government concerning an 

 iii.spcction of jiotatoes imported from America. The quantity was probably only about 

 1000 cwt. annually, and consisted solely of seed-potatoes which came in a very clean 

 condition. 



Mr. E. Saunders read the first portion of a Synopsis of British Memiptera- 

 Heteroptera. 



END OF VOL. XI. 



