( xii ) 



living beings is an hermaphrodite cell, of which the centre is female and 

 the peripherous part male. If the cell keeps united the animal remains an 

 hermaphrodite or parthenogenetic creature; if, by some yet unknown process, 

 the peripherous part, which is entirely formed of spermatozoid buddings, is 

 separated from the central ovum, the two sexes appear. This question 

 cannot, of course, be fully treated of in one page of a letter, yet I should 

 like to submit the idea to my colleagues of the London Society, where there 

 are so many eminent observers of insect-life." 



Miss E. A. Ormerod exhibited a specimen of Sitones jmncticolUs, Steph., 

 bred at the end of last May from larvae found feeding commonly on the 

 rootlets of red clover near Chelmsford, Essex, by Mr. Christy; also at 

 Rothamstead by Sir J. B. Lawes. It had previously been conjectured that 

 the " white maggot," which is so commonly destructive to the red-clover 

 plant in early spring was the larva of Sitones, but hitherto the images had 

 not been bred. 



Mr. Fitch said he could testify to the destructive habits of this pest in 

 Essex, and he believed it was the chief cause of so-called " clover sickness " 

 in many localities ; where he had pointed out the habits of this larva to 

 agriculturists this was found in almost every instance to be the cause 

 of the plant dying off, and " white maggot in the young clover" was quite 

 a well-known farm-pest in Essex. Mr. Fitch had failed to breed the beetles 

 from many hundreds of larvae collected, and was very pleased to see that 

 Miss Ormerod had been successful. 



Miss Ormerod also exhibited several young pine plants of about five 

 or six years' growth, which had been barked by the larvae of one of the 

 Lamellicornes, most probably Melolontha vulgaris. The plants were received 

 from Mr. Taylor, agent to the Earl of Shaftesbury, from near Salisbury, 

 where several thousand acres of plantation had been destroyed. It was 

 remarked that this was the first instance of such great destruction from 

 chafer larvae in Britain, although they had proved similarly destructive to 

 ConifercB in Canada. 



Mr. E. A. Fitch exhibited the images and cocoons of two species of 

 Puhjsphincta (P. tuherosa, Gr., and P. pallipes, Holmgr.?), also a drawing 

 of the curious larva of P. tuherosa made by JNIi". G. C. Bignell. The larvae 

 of these Ichneumons are external parasites of spiders, and although a 

 similar economy had been previously recorded by De Geer, Blackwall, 

 Laboulbene, Vollenhoven, Brischke, &c., and a specimen probably allied to 

 these had been exhibited at a meeting of this Society (Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 Lond. 1868, p. 1), very little appeared to be generally known on the subject. 

 Mr. Fitch read details of Observations upon the specimens exhibited from 

 tlie Rev. A. Matthews and Mr. G. C. Bignell. 



Mr. Fitch also exhibited an apparently new species of BelytidcB, captured 

 by the Rev. A. Matthews on August 19th, 1874, among a colony oi Anom- 



