JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
Ill 
under the roof. Notwithstanding this difference of habits, the spe- 
cimens were regarded by Mr. Stephens to be the V. vulgaris. 
The same gentleman also exhibited a large piece of an oak beam 
from the floor of a flour-mill near Cladbury, completely perforated 
in every direction, as it was supposed, by the larvae of the Tenebrio 
molitor, great numbers of which were also exhibited on breaking 
off' a piece of the wood. A specimen of Trogosita mauritanica was 
also discovered in one of the burrows. It was observed, however, 
that the perforations were very irregular, and not cylindrical, as is 
ordinarily the case with wood-boring insects, which circumstance, 
together with the unusual locality of these meal-eating species, in- 
duced some of the members present to doubt whether the injury 
were in fact caused by the meal-worm, which, in this case, must evi- 
dently have had such a supply of its ordinary food as not to have 
experienced any inducement to resort to the hard wood of an 
oaken beam for its support. Mr. Hope suggested that the devas- 
tation had much more the appearance of the work of a colony of 
ants, which had probably established themselves beneath the floor; 
whilst Mr. Westwood contended, in the absence of the imago, that 
even were the injury produced by these larvae, they were rather to 
be attributed to Helops violaceus than Tenebrio molitor , which closely 
resemble each other in the larva state, and he mentioned the cir- 
cumstance recorded by Mr. Paget in his recent work upon the 
Natural History of Yarmouth, of a window-frame having been 
entirely devoured by a colony of the larvae of Helops violaceus. 
Mr. Bainbridge also stated that he had found the last-named insect, 
both in the larva and imago states, in a fir-post on Plumstead 
Common. 
Mr. Hilton inquired as to the practical advantages likely to 
arise, by the employment of Kyan’s solution for steeping wood, in 
preventing the attacks of insects upon the wood work of houses in 
a manner similar to that now exhibited. 
The following memoirs were read : 
“ Monograph upon the Hemipterous genus Myocoris .” By Dr. 
Hermann Burmeister. 
“ Notice of the Manner in which the Larva of Sirex juvencus 
perforates the solid Wood of Fir-Trees.” By W. Sells, Esq. 
“ Description of the Larva of Blaps morlisaga .” By A. H. Hali- 
day, Esq., M. A. 
“ Description of a New Genus of Dipterous Insects from New 
South Wales.” By J. O. Westwood, F. L. S. 
“ Notice of the Capture of a Locust near Ardmore, in Ireland, 
