143 



in the interior of the young shoots : many trees are leafless, every one 

 of the young shoots being totally destroyed. — Henry Douhleday ; 

 Eppingy May 7, 1841. 



31. Cockchafers in. France. For many years cockchafers have not 

 been so abundant in France as in the present year. The trees in 

 many parts were so completely stripped by their ravages, that they 

 were, in the middle of May, as bare of leaves as in winter. The 

 number of these insects was so immense, and the noise of their buzzing 

 in an evening so gi'eat, as to obhge persons engaged in conversation 

 to talk loudly in order to be heard. They hung in great quantities 

 from the branches of some kinds of trees, giving them the appearance 

 of being covered with brown leaves, so that a person unaccustomed 

 to the country, instead of speaking of a tree as a beech, an oak, &c. 

 would have called them cockchafer-trees. — G. Newman ; Minerva 

 Terrace, Cannon Street Road, June 9, 1841. 



32. Polyommatus Argiohis. Why is it that we have this year no 

 Polyommatus Argiolus, which used to be seen in plenty vapouring 

 about our hollies, at this season, and in such weather as we have 

 had lately } I have seen the insect fresh on the wing before the end 

 of March ; but it generally makes its appearance about the middle or 

 end of April if the weather is favorable ; as yet we have not seen one 

 specimen this year. It seems almost as if some insects, like some 

 species of birds, had disappeared from jDarticular districts. — TV. T. 

 Bree ; Allesley Rectory, May 14,1841. 



33. Tortrix MitterbacMana. A few days since, whilst passing 

 through Kensington Gardens, my attention was drawn to what I con- 

 sidered to be the backward state of many of the elms, as they appeared 

 not yet to have put forth their leaves. On apiDroaching them more 

 nearly however, I found that their want of foliage did not depend on 

 their backwardness, but on the attacks of an insect. On examining 

 the branches I found upon the decaying buds and leaves great num- 

 bers of a small green caterpillar, and wrapped up in the folds of many 

 of the decayed leaves, in much greater numbers, a small brown chry- 

 salis. These insects were only to be found on the small-leaved elm, 

 (Ulmus campestris), for although the broad-leaved elm (Ulmus mon- 

 tana) grows in the gardens, none of them were found on this species. 

 — Edwin Lankester ; University College Hospital, June 9, 1841. 



34. Linnean Society, 1st June, 1841. — The secretary read 'A Synop- 

 sis of the family Paussidae ; with descriptions of a new genus and four 

 new species : ' by J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. In this paper Mr. 

 Westvvood removes the genus Trichoideus from the family Paussidae, 



