via .TOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



Continuation of the Rev, F. VV. Hope's " Descriptions of New 

 Exotic Coleoptera." (See ante, page 1 I.) 



Notice of the Entomological Proceedings at the Linnaean Society. 

 Communicated by Mr. Westwood. At the Meeting of the 3rd of 

 December four Memoirs by Signor Passerini were presented : upon 

 Leucan'ia Zees, Bdv,, the larvae of which attack Indian corn; upon 

 the noise produced by Sphinx Atropos; upon Osciiiis Olece, the 

 larvae of which feed upon the olives in Italy ; and upon Tinea oUvella, 

 the larvaj of which feed upon the leaves of the same plant. At the 

 Meetino- of the 17th December the conclusion of Mr. Westwood's 

 monograph upon Diopsis was read. The 18th, 19th, and 20th vo- 

 lumes of the 'Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle' were pre- 

 sented, containing Lyonnet's posthumous Researches ; also the 1st 

 and 2nd volumes of the ' Nouv. Annales du Museum d'Histoire Na- 

 turelle,' containing Memoirs upon the Thysanura and upon Prosopi- 

 stoma by Latreille, a Memoir upon the Coleoptera of French Guiana 

 by Lacordaire, and a Memoir upon the Lepidoptera of Madagascar 

 by Boisduval. Mr. J. E. Gray's Memoir, read at the Zoological 

 Society, upon the Cirrhipcda, disproving the statements of Mr. J, V. 

 Thompson relative to the transformations which tliey undergo, was 

 also noticed. 



The Rev. F. W. Hope exhibited two pieces of wood, communi- 

 cated by Captain Walter Smee, one of which had been greatly per- 

 forated by the Termites in the East Indies, and the other by a large 

 species of bee {Xijlocopa), together with other substances which had 

 been destroyed in the same manner by the former insect. Captain 

 Smee remarked that, from observations which he had made in India, 

 it appeared to him that the Termites were much more destructive 

 in consequence of a powerful acid which they leave upon every- 

 thino' they pass over than from their merely feeding upon such sub- 

 stances. 



Mr. Westwood, in allusion to the destructive habits of the wood- 

 boring insects, read an extract from a letter from Mr. Denson, re- 

 lating to the devastation caused by Ptilinus pectinicornis upon a 

 newly made bed-post, which, although formed of sound wood, was 

 obliged to be burnt in the course of two or three years afterwards 

 in consequence of its having been attacked by myriads of that in- 

 sect. A portion of the post was exhibited, and it appeared that its 

 interior was very dry, and became pulverised at the slightest touch : 

 this was the case with such portions as lay between the tracts of the 

 insects. Whether this decay was consequent upon these attacks, or 

 wheth.er, having become thus decayed, it had afforded a habitation 



