244 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Hymenopteva. He exhibited a portion of poplar-twig from 

 Dr. Knaggs' garden at Kentish Town, which had been occu- 

 pied by a large family of dark-coloured Aphides : of these 

 nothing now remained but their empty inflated skins, each 

 of which presented a circular opening, whence the parasite 

 (probably an Aphidius) had emerged, the whole bearing much 

 resemblance to a collection of empty egg-shells of some large 

 Lepidopterous insect. The portion of poplar-twig was less 

 than an inch in length, and on it were nearly one hundred of 

 these empty skins. 



Tivo Species of Argas new to Britain. — Prof. Westwood 

 exhibited specimens and drawings of the following: — 



Argas reflexus, Latreille. Type of a family and genus not 

 hitherto recorded as British. A colony of this species had 

 been Ibund by Mr. Gulliver under a stone in the crypt of 

 Canterbury Cathedral. It ordinarily infests pigeons on the 

 Continent, and the colony had probably originated from 

 individuals that had fallen from the flocks of those birds 

 frequenting the Cathedral. (Mr. F. Smith added that speci- 

 mens of the dog-tick had been forwarded to him that had 

 been found in the same Cathedral, and he has since furnished 

 information to the effect that the British Museum possesses 

 an example of the Argas from the same building.) 



Argas Noctulas, Westw. Perfectly round in outline, the 

 disk of the cephalothorax with deep and large punctures 

 widely scattered, and with radiating punctures towards the 

 margins. Long. 5 mm. Taken from off a gentleman in the 

 church of Whittlesfbrd, Cambridgeshire, having evidently 

 fallen from the larger noctule bat, of which two young 

 individuals had dropped close to the gentleman on whom it 

 had been found, and whom it attempted to bite. Forwarded 

 to Prof. Westwood by Mr. F. Bond. It is closely allied to 

 the Argas Pipistrellae of Audouin, but is very much larger. 



Double Cocoons of Insects. — Mr. F. Smith called attention 

 to the fact that mice are in the habit of devouring the dead 

 pui)a) of Bombyx raori contained in what is known as ' silk- 

 w'aste,' viz., the inner cocoon remaining after the external 

 silken envelope had been wound off. This had been brought 

 to his notice by one of his sons as occurring in a London 

 silk-warehouse, and a parcel of the said 'waste' brought to 

 him afibrded an instance of a double cocoon, or, rather, 



