THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



from Heme Bay. Both sexes of A. Cardaraiiies were remark- 

 able for the largeness of the black spot on the disk of the fore 

 wings, and the male had a rudimentary tail to the hind wings. 



Mr. Edward Slieppard read the following extract from a 

 letter written by Mrs. Russell, of Kenilworth, the beetle 

 referred to being a Meloe : — "An evening or two ago I 

 watched a beetle for an hour in the garden excavating a hole 

 in the earth of one of the beds, big enough to hold its own 

 large long body. It was evidently a female, full of eggs. It bit 

 off little pellets of earth from the rim of its hole and cast them 

 away with its hind feet, turning itself about in every direction, 

 and working without a moment's cessation. It had very 

 large, thick antennae, and was plainly a very powerful crea- 

 ture, rolling down pieces of the dry crumbling earth half as 

 big as itself, and not minding them a bit. Next morning I 

 went to see the state of affairs, and found, to my astonishment, 

 the excavation completely filled up, and smoothed over, as if 

 some one had passed his hand over the finely-powdered soil. 

 Thinking it possible she might have buried herself, I searched 

 the place well with a stick, but there was no trace of her, and 

 I therefore conclude that she had been laying some eggs and 

 covering them up." 



Prof. Westwood gave an account of his observations of 

 Ateuchus sacer at Cannes, and mentioned that during flight 

 the elytra were perfectly horizontal and very slightly open 

 at the suture, so that the motion of the wings was confined 

 within very narrovv limits. The action of the beetles in 

 rolling along the ground the ball or pellet of dung in which 

 the female deposits her eggs was most curious: with head 

 pressed down and hind feet raised aloft, with its back to the 

 pellet and moving backwards, one beetle pushed and guided 

 the ball with its hind legs, whilst another beetle clung to the 

 ball, and remaining motionless thereon was rolled over and 

 over with it, sometimes uppermost, sometimes undermost. 

 [See the account of Ateuchus variolosus given by " lonicus" 

 in 'The Entomological Magazine,' vol. iii. p. 377.] 



Mr. Keays exhibited oak-leaveS from Hornsey Wood, 

 which were cut straight across the middle, leaving only the 

 midrib, and the outer halves then twisted and rolled up by 

 Attelabus Curculionoides, with a view to oviposition. 



