XXVI 
JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
that it is the peculiar office of the males to bring into this incipient 
stage of decay young and perfectly healthy trees, and consequently 
that the allowing a few old trees to swarm with the larvae for some 
years unmolested, is sufficient to lay the foundation of the ruin 
even of trees recently planted, with every apparent condition of 
insuring their vigorous growth, as I have seen instances every- 
where in one tour by hundreds. 
“ So thoroughly do the elms in the French promenades swarm 
with Scolyti, that I have been able to study their habits almost as 
well while travelling on our leisurely plan of remaining a week or 
ten days at a place, as if I had been stationary on the borders of a 
forest of those trees, and I have thus (as well as in timber-yards, 
and even in the streets where the operations of sowing and splitting 
fire-wood for winter use is going on everywhere) picked up many 
facts in their economy quite new to me, though probably seen and 
recorded by former observers. Among the rest I found at Bayeux 
about a fortnight ago, pupae just ready for disclosure, swarming 
with the same Vibrio on their surface which I observed at Brussels, 
thus proving that the presence of this parasite is not accidental. 
At Rouen, in their public garden, I got specimens of another spe- 
cies of Scolytus , which has destroyed many of their mountain ashes. 
And I also ascertained, during the fortnight we remained there, 
the transformation of a larva which covered the leaves of their elms 
by myriads, rendering the trees as brown as if blasted by lightning, 
and which turned out to be a Galeruca, allied to G. calmariensis.” 
There were also read, — 
“ A Letter containing some Observations on the Ravages of the 
Larva of Athalia centfolice upon Turnips, with Various Sugges- 
tions for preventing the same.” By W. Sells, Esq. M.E.S. 
“ Description of a New Genus of Coleopterous Insects from 
Corfu.” By J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. 
Mr. Yarrell stated that the Athalia centfolice formed the subject of 
a paper by himself in the forthcoming part of the Transactions of 
the Zoological Society, and that he had ascertained that ducks 
might be readily brought to feed and fatten upon the larvae. It was 
also suggested by Mr. Stephens that the perfect insects might 
readily be captured by means of the Norfolk sweeping-net de- 
scribed by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. 
Mr. Ingpen, in allusion to the Aphides upon the nut-grass grown 
in the Society’s apartments, stated that he had repeatedly found spe- 
cimens of Aphides during the winter at the roots of grass in the 
fields. 
