]88 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



specimen I found had buried itself so far into tlie stem as just 

 to leave its posterior part exposed. They are both beetles, 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, black in colour, and 

 have a large head of peculiar shape, well adapted, no doubt, 

 to contain powerful muscles and mandibles for tearing the 

 tough woody fibre of the stem of the plant; but I leave their 

 description to the entomologists. The office these creatures 

 are no doubt intended to fulfil in Nature's economy is to 

 assist in keeping the tropical vegetation in check. They 

 burrow into the stem of the tree, are rewarded by the sap and 

 nourishment it affords, and are liberated, after performing 

 this task, by a gust of wind snapping the undermined and 

 weakened stem across. They are not found in other trees or 

 shrubs than the one alluded to. The beetle turns on his side 

 while boring, his back being towards the bark : in this 

 manner his form suits the circumference of the stem." 



White Ant bred at Kew. — Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited 

 specimens of a white ant (Calotermes sp.), recently bred at 

 Kew from a sample of the wood of the tree (Trachylobiura 

 Hornmannianum) that produces the gum copal of Zanzibar. 



Deiopeia pulcliella in Cornwall. — Mr. Stainton read a 

 letter he had received from the Kev. P. H. Newnham, of 

 Stonehouse, Devon, stating that he had taken two living 

 specimens of Deiopeia pulchella, on the opposite side of the 

 river Tamar, in Cornwall. Mr. Stainton remarked on the 

 •unusual circumstance of the insect having been captured at 

 such an early season as the month of May. 



A Living Mantid exhibited. — Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse 

 sent for exhibition a living specimen of a Mantid (Empusa 

 pauperata), in the larva or pupa state, brought from Hyeres 

 by the Rev. Mr. Sandes, of Wandsworth. The captor stated 

 that he had supplied it with flies, &c., in the hope of ascer- 

 taining the mode in which it seized them, but that he could 

 not induce it to eat anything while he was looking on. 

 Mr. Stainton suggested that if he had put a living spider in 

 the cage it would probably have seized it immediately. 



The Coffee-borer of Natal. — The Secretary read the fol- 

 lowing note, which he had received from Mr. William D. Gooch, 

 of Spring Vale, Little Umhlanga, Natal, respecting the habits 

 of the Longicorn "coffee-borer of Natal": — "The egg, as far 

 as we can determine, is laid about the level of the soil, about 

 the middle of December, at a time when the trees look most 



