18fi6.j 47 
Occurrence of Meligethes ochropus, a species new to Britain. — In May lust 1 took 
a large bright-looking Meligethes on the sea-banks near Hartley, which I at once 
referred to ochropus, Schiip. Stui-m, Ins. Deutsch, xvi. 23. Tab. cccvi. fig. h. H. ; 
and, having recently submitted the specimen to Mr. Crotch, he has confirmed my 
opinion ; remarking that he has examples of the same insect taken in the London 
district.— Thos. Jno. Bold, Long Benton, Newcastle-on-Tyne, March 26th, 1866. 
Note on ileligethes Kunzei, a species not included in the British list of Coleoptera. — 
In examining my specimens (taken in the London district) of Meligethes allied to 
distinctus, memnonitis, &c., I find one that agrees very well with Erichson's descrip- 
tion of ilf . Kunzei (Ins. Deut. iii., 182, 15). It resembles difflcilis in size and build, 
but has even more widely and strongly punctured elytra, of which the pubescence 
is very fine and scanty : it is, moreover, of a deeper black colour, without any trace 
of greenish reflections on the head and thorax ; and the anterior tibiae are not so 
strongly denticulated, the teeth being finer and blunter. Erichson appears to have 
originally had some doubts whether M. Kunzei was specifically distinct from difftciUs, 
but to have finally determined that their diagnostic characters were constant and 
sufficient. Both these insects resemble M. ochropus (recorded in the present No. 
by my friend Mr. T. J. Bold) , — a species not uncommon in the London district, and 
long known both to Mr. Waterhouse and myself; but not brought forward on 
account of a slight difficulty in connection with the Erichsonian types examined by 
Mr. Waterhouse.— E. C. Ryk, 284, King's Road, Chelsea, S.W. 
AiLANTHicuLTURE ; or the Prospect of a new English Industry. By Alexander 
Wallace, M.D., Oxon., M.R.C.P., Lond. (Transactions of the Entomological 
Society of London, 1866, 3rd ser., vol 5, pp. 185-245. The Society, or Longman 
and Co.) 
It is now about ten years since the repeated failures of the silk-crop in Europe 
induced serioiculturists to look about them for some other silk-producing species 
which should in some way be able to supply the place of the Bomlyx mori. Amongst 
those species experimented upon with so much success in France by M. Guerin 
Meneville and others, Bomhyx cynthia, the Ailanthus silkworm, has probably found 
more favour than any other, producing a silk, inferior in fineness and gloss to the 
old-fashioned sort, but to the durability of which there is said to be no end ; and in 
Paris, fabrics woven from this silk are publicly sold. In England, Lady Dorothy 
Nevill and others had made, to a certain extent successful, trials of this novel kind 
of sericiculture, but it was probably not carried on to any considerable extent until 
the author of the above-mentioned paper tried it on an extended scale on the railway 
bank at Colchester, he having planted half a mile of the bank with Ailanthus trees 
to the number of about 2,300, and in this valuable paper, to which was awarded 
one of the prizes offered by the Entomological Society of London for the best essays 
on Utilitarian Entomology, Dr, Wallace details minutely the plan pursued, and 
gives copious extracts from the many notices on the same subject published in 
France, winding "d vrith a discussion of the events which led to the introduction of 
