48 



HylesinidiB, by making its buiTOW iu the solid wood, the eggs and frasa were 

 disposed as in the normal buiTow, excepting that several eggs were placed 

 beneath the fiass of the roof. In no case did I observe both beetles in a burrow, 

 and from what I saw I have no doubt that pairing occurs after the burrow is 

 commenced but without the male entering it. 



In aU the species the female beetle dies in the burrow after oviposition is 

 completed. 



All the species have a fashion of placing their foreheads against other 

 individuals and giving a tlu-ust by pushing forwards the jaws. They employ this 

 process to remove another beetle from a station they desire to occupy ; it appears 

 also to be an expression of anger, and sometimes two beetles have an encounter 

 iu this way. They use the same movement in recommending themselves to the 

 other sex. 



Destructor, intricatus, and Pruni are able to squeak audibly by a rapid- 

 movement of the abdomen against the elytra. Tntricatiis makes the loudest 

 sound. The specimens in the tubes may be provoked by a gentle tap of the tube 

 to emit this squeak, which may be heard by placing the mouth of the tube to the 

 ear. 



The Scolyti are much infested by parasites, especially by Hymenoptera of 

 the family Chaloididse. I have put in the box a few specimens of these that I 

 have bred this spring. Sco!i/tus Pruni and intricatus lose a large proportion of 

 their broods by their attacks, but Scolytiis rugulosus was of all the species 

 bred the most copiously attacked. On removing a piece of bark from a stick con- 

 taining them, numerous larvae of the parasites were visible, which had devoured 

 the larvre of the beetles, before they had entered their hibemacula in the wood, 

 all those that had escaped the parasites having" done so. The parasites repre- 

 sented at least half the broods ; I bred from them half a dozen species of Chalci- 

 didre, Cheiropachus Quadrwin being much the most numerous. The greater 

 liability of ScoJytus rugulosus to attacks from parasites has probably a close con- 

 nection with the fact I have ah-eady mentioned, that the entrance of its galleries 

 of oviposition are very obvious. 



(This paper was admirably illustrated by the insects themselves alive and at 

 work on the bark, and by the prepared insects with their parasites arranged in a 

 case.) 



The next communication was a paper on 



