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the noise, and appeared unable to make the noise until some time was given 
to allow it to recover its vigour. 
«A curious incident connected with this insect came under my notice 
some years ago. In cleaning out the body of a female, I turned out a mass 
of apparently mature eggs, but they all proved unfertile: soon after, in 
operating upon another female, a slight pressure upon the body drove an 
egg out from the oviduct, and a repeated pressure extruded a second, the 
rest—20 or 830—would not come, and were taken out in emptying the body. 
The two which had been pressed through the oviduct hatched, and all the 
others shrivelled. I mention this as it seems a sort of confirmation of Von 
Siebold’s observation respecting bees, that the fertilization of the egg takes 
place on its passage through the oviduct. The two larve lived two or three 
days, refusing every leaf I offered them; I did not then know Aristolochia 
was the food-plant.” 
Mr. Sealy also called attention to a peculiarity in the formation of the 
hind wings of the male, specimens of which he exhibited, there being a large 
pouch on the anal margin, filled with fluffy hair. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan read a letter he had received from an Englishman residing 
in Pueblo, Colorado, U.S., stating that he had grown potatoes in various 
parts of the Union, and that he was satisfied it was not necessary for the 
potato beetle to have pieces of haulm to support him whilst crossing the 
Atlantic, as he had found the insect in his potato pits, eating the tubers 
sreedily; and that unless the English authorities took some steps to 
prevent the importation of potato bulbs, he believed the beetle would soon 
be in this country. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan drew attention to the following remark by Lieut. W. L. 
Carpenter, in his Report of the Zoological Collections made in Colorado 
during the summer of 1873 (extracted from the Annual Report of the 
U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey) with reference to the Colorado 
potato beetle :— 
«This insect is still marching eastward, not a single specimen having 
been seen west of the dividing-ridge. It is probable that, should the potato 
be cultivated on the western water-shed, it would be free from the ravages 
of this destructive insect for a number of years; but that it would ultimately 
make its appearance in that region through the agency of the seed. This 
I believe to be the manner of their introduction to distant localities, as they 
are sluggish travellers, and quite incapable of spreading so rapidly by their 
own instinct. This belief is further sustained by their continued absence 
from the Salt Lake basin, occasioned by the cheapness of vegetables in the 
Mormon settlements excluding the importation of potatoes from Colorado. 
Not found at a greater altitude than 8000 feet.” 
Mr. Bates believed the distribution of the beetle depended more upon 
climatic conditions. The native home of the insect was the eastern 
