72 Transactions of the 



to be mtode, a larger attendance of members and visitors than 

 could be accommodated in the usual place of meeting might 

 be anticipated. That, in the present instance, the Committee 

 were fully justified in making this change may be gathered 

 from the fact that no less than 176 members and visitors 

 were present. Among them were a considerable number of 

 ladies, the Eev. J. Percival (Head Master), the Eev. H. J. 

 Wiseman, C. J. Peile, Esq., and others interested in the 

 well-being and prosperity of the Society. 



The minutes of the preceding meeting having been read 

 and approved, the President called upon the Eev. J. Greene 

 to read the second of his papers on ' Insect Life.' 



Having briefly recapitulated from his first paper the facts 

 which he had there brought forward to illustrate the pro- 

 digious fecundity of insects, and the voracity of their cater- 

 pillars, Mr. Greene mentioned some of the many causes 

 which combined to arrest their undue increase, mentioning 

 the facts — that many of the eggs never hatched; that, where 

 they did, many of the larvae produced from them died in the 

 process of moulting their skins ; that whole broods were 

 frequently swept off by a peculiar disease, commonly called 

 ' muscardine,' as in the case of the silkworm ; that vast 

 quantities were devoured by birds, especially in the breeding 

 season ; . . . ' but the most wonderful, and at the same time 

 the most efficacioas mode of repressing their undue increase 

 (I speak now of Lepidopterous larvae) is by means of what 

 are called " Ichneumons,' nearly all of which belong to the 

 orders Hymenoptera and Diptera. These insects pierce 

 through the skin of the devoted caterpillar, and deposit 

 within its body one or more eggs. The larvae produced from 

 these eggs feed upon the unfortunate catei'^jillar's interior. 

 It sometimes dies almost immediately, but much more fi'e- 

 quently goes on eating till quite full fed, when the skin 

 bursts and liberates the ichneumon; or it (the ichneumon) 

 turns into a chi-ysalis, sometimes inside, and, at others, outside 

 the body of the caterpillar, which then shrivels up into a dry 

 and shapeless skin. I have only once seen the operation. On 

 one occasion, when examining a shrub for lai^vee, a small 

 cateii^illar dropped from it, suspended by a thread. At the 

 same instant a ferocious-looking ichneumon suddenly grasped 

 the unfortunate little catei'pillar, and, with almost lightning 

 speed, transfixed it three or four times with its slender 

 ovipositor, and then, having accomplished its evil work, 

 depai-tod. For a few moments the caterpillar seemed stunned, 



