JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. Iv 



Pietro Santo in Tuscany, and is considered as more detrimental than 

 either Coccus Oka or the larvae of Tinea Oleella ? In April four or live 

 of the eggs of the Thrips are attached to almost every bud of the 

 branches of the olives, on the parenchyma of the young leaves of 

 which the larvae, when hatched, feed. 



" Account of the Attacks of various Insects upon Wine-Corks." 

 By S. S. Saunders, Esq., M.E.S. 



The author states, that a friend having occasion to remove his 

 stock of wine from one cellar to another, found the corks of many 

 of the bottles injured, so that the wane had leaked, occasionally so 

 much only remaining as was retained in the hollow of the bottles 

 when lying down. The damage was confined to the bottles con- 

 taining Shiraz (a Persian wine,) and some Hock, which had been 

 twenty years in the cellar. The corks of these bottles, although 

 placed apart, were injured, the intervening descriptions of wine being 

 untouched. On examining the corks, four species of insects were 

 found in them, Myceteea hirta, Cryptophagus cellaris, a minute Acarus, 

 and Atropos lignarius. 



The Acarus was found in some abundance within the crevices of 

 the corks of both wines, and one specimen, which the author ob- 

 served undisturbed for a length of time under a microscope, appeared 

 to be engaged in burrowing into the cork, for which purpose the re- 

 curved claw at the extremity of the anterior legs appears adapted. 

 The Atropos lignarius Avas not in any great abundance, and was 

 observed running about the outside of the corks, none being found 

 within them. Of the Cryptophagus cellaris a single specimen was 

 alone observed, among some corks which had been extracted and 

 placed in a box during several months. A single specimen of Myce- 

 teea hirta was likewise only observed, although in the account which 

 Mr. Curtis has published of this genus (to which the author refers,) 

 it is stated that they were found in considerable abundance, and were 

 also accompanied by a minute Acarus ; the damage to the corks being 

 supposed by Mr. Curtis to be caused by the larvfe of a moth. 



It was further mentioned, that the tops of the Hock corks were 

 covered with a coating of wax ; but as this did not extend down to 

 the bottle, serving only as a mark, it was not serviceable in de- 

 fending the corks against the attacks of the insects. No larvae of 

 any kind were observed in the corks. The author then questions 

 the correctness of Mr. Curtis's suggestions as to the introduction of 

 the Myceteea into the cellar with hay and sawdust, in consequence of 

 a circumstance mentioned in the original letters of Dr. Henderson to 

 Mr. Curtis, coinciding in a singular manner with the observations of 

 Mr. Saunders, namely, that the fittacks noticed by Dr. Henderson 



