XXIX 



by the abdomen, in which position they had died, possibly from the effects 

 of a fungoid disease. 



Mr. A. H. Swinton communicated the following : — 



" Note on Luciola Italica. 



"Towards the end of June the Luciola Italica is common along the 

 damp plane-tree walks that border the torrent-bed of the Po at Turin. 

 They commence to glitter at night after the close of dusk under the 

 hanging foliage and along the weedy river-banks, moving in straight lines 

 and emitting an intermittent light, whose fitfulness renders their capture 

 not a little puzzUng and difficult. If more closely watched it is found they 

 only fly thus for a little space, and then settle down on the twigs and plants 

 to rest. When introduced into a room at night and let go, they rise zigzag 

 to the ceiling, and as they dart like miniature meteors their light vacillates 

 from a round fire-globe to a lozenge-shaped nebula. Placed in vicinity 

 beneath inverted tumblers, they flash out their light alternately and 

 responsive. One morning after the enaction of such display, I fancied 

 I perceived an odour of the common puff-ball fungus in the glass where one 

 was confined. 



" A luminous Coleopterous larva (?) I found in the Island of Capri 

 emitted a light that shone through the chip-box in which it lay. The glow 

 was quenched seemingly at the pleasure of the creature, and seemed to 

 become brighter when the box was disturbed." 



October 6, 1880. 



H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 



The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. 

 Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the 

 respective donors. 



Election of Members. 



Sir Arthur Scott, of Birmingham, and 97, Eaton Square, W., and 

 Mr. Frank Edward Robinson, of 10, Little Clarendon Street, Oxford, were 

 balloted for and elected ordinary Members. 



Eixhihitions. 

 Mr. M'Lachlan stated that last year (Proc. Ent. Soc, 1879, p. xliii) he 

 had exhibited specimens of Anthocoris nemorum, an Hemipterous insect, 

 which, under the name of the " needle-nosed flea," had been supposed by 

 a correspondent residing near Canterbury to be damaging the hops in that 

 neighbourhood, At the time of exhibiting the specimens he had expressed 



