THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 215 



species of Diptera (Senometopia spinipennis and Conops 

 flavipes) ; two other Crypti (C. confutor and C. signatovius) 

 being cited by Dr. Giraud. Tiie Zonitis devoured the egg 

 and pollen-paste whereon the Stelis also subsisted; the 

 Chrysis, Crypti and Senometopia fed upon the soft larvae 

 externally ; Halticella was reared within the more solid adult 

 larvae, whose tegument, desiccated and black (as in specimens 

 exhibited), served for the hybernation of the parasite ; the 

 Melitobia destroyed the nymph in its soft state by external 

 attack, and the Conops deposited its egg in the body of the 

 bee itself after maturity. Specimens of this Osmia alive, and 

 of the briars from which they were produced, were also 

 exhibited. 



Chrysomela cerealis. — Mr. Champion exhibited a series of 

 recently-captured individuals of Chrysomela cerealis from 

 Snowdon, its only known British locality. Mr. M'Lachlan 

 stated that he had recently seen this species in the Depart- 

 ment of the Saone et Loire, in France, in great numbers, each 

 ear of wheat having several of the beetles upon it, and 

 remarked on the singular nature of its sole habitat in Britain. 



Trap-door Spiders in the Bark of a Tree. — The Secretary 

 exhibited nests of a trap-door spider containing living 

 inmates, sent from Uitenhage, near Port Elizabeth, by Mr. 

 Henry VV, Bidwell, a member of the Legislative Assembly of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. The nests were not (as is usual) in 

 the earth, but in cavities in the bark of trees, and the " trap- 

 door" appeared to be formed of a portion of the bark, thus 

 rendering it most difficult to detect the nests when in a 

 closed condition. The Secretary was also informed that 

 similar nests were constructed in door-posis and other 

 places. 



American Locusts and Army Worm. — Mr. Riley, State 

 Entomologist of Missouri, exhibited sundry of the insect-pests 

 that do so much damage in the United States, including the 

 army worm (Leucania unipuncta) and the Rocky Mountain 

 locust (Caloptenus spretus), and entered at some length into 

 the habits of the latter insect, and the vast amount of desti- 

 tution caused by it, stating that in a short period it devoured 

 almost every living plant, leaving nothing but the leaves of 

 the forest trees, and converting a fruitful country into an 

 absolute desert. From a knowledge of the habits of the 



