THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 549 



my garden facing the north-west. In 1868 these trees appeared 

 perfectly healthy till about the end of May, when the leaves 

 were suddenly covered with honeydew so thickly that they 

 looked as if they had been varnished, and a drop hung at the 

 tip of almost every leaf I could not see a blistered leaf or a 

 trace of an Aphis upon them, and there were no standard- 

 trees near the wall. In the course of a week or two, after the 

 appearance of the honeydew, the leaves began to change 

 colour, and soon afterwards the whole of them, and also all 

 the fruit, dropped off. Most of the trees died the following 

 winter, and the two or three which were alive in the spring 

 only put forth a few weak shoots. I do not believe that the 

 honeydew on these trees was caused by Aphides, which 

 sometimes exist in large numbers on trees without any trace 

 of honeydew being seen. — Henry Douhleday ; Epping, 

 October 15, 1873. 



Extracts from the Proceedings of the Entomological 

 Society, March 17 to April 7, 1873. 



Sexual Difference in Insects having Ocellated Spots. — 

 Mr. Bates put some questions to the meeting, suggested to 

 him by Mr. Darwin, with a view to eliciting information as 

 to sexual differences in insects furnished with ocellated 

 spots ; and also as to sexual differences among the Buprestidae. 

 A conversation ensued, in which Mr. Jenner Weir stated that 

 in Satyrus Hyperanlhus the spots were more numerous in the 

 female than in the male, and Mr. Butler remarked that 

 Drusillus had double spots in one sex. It was also stated 

 that Mr. Saunders had detected corresponding sexual 

 differences in the Buprestidae. 



New British Dipiera. — Mr. Verrall exhibited a specimen 

 of Laphria flava, L., one of the Asilidae, taken in Scotland, 

 not having been hitherto discovered in this country. Also 

 the following Syrphidae, namely : — Syrphus Compositarum, 

 Ver., S. flavifrons, Ver., and S. punctulatus, Ver., all new 

 species ; together with S. annulatus, Zett., S. barbifrons, 

 Fall., and S. nigricornis, J'er. (= obscurus, Zett.), the last 

 three having been found in this country for the first time. 



Dragonjties devoured by an Asilus. — Mr. M'Lachlan 

 stated that he had been informed by Lord Walsingham that 



