( vii ) 



members of that group ; but from the structure of the 

 antennae and other characters, it appeared to be out of 

 place in the Phytophaga, and probably belonged to some 

 other family. 



Mr. Gahan remarked that this beetle, although looking so 

 very like one of the Phytophaga, probably was a Longicorn ; 

 but, until there was an opportunity of examining it more 

 closely, he could not speak with any confidence in regard to 

 its systematic position. It was not referable to any genus 

 with which he was acquainted, and, to whatever family it 

 might prove to belong, was very interesting, not only from 

 its structural peculiarities, but also from the fact that it had 

 the coloui' and markings characteristic of certain species of 

 Galerucidfe, a family to which it undoubtedly was not in any 

 way closely related. This fact seemed to show that it was a 

 mimetic form, and thus helped to explain the present obscurity 

 surrounding its affinities. 



Mr. J. J. Walker read the following extract from the 

 account given in " The Last Voyage of Thomas Candish " 

 (Hakluyt's Voyages, ed. Goldsmid, Edinburgh, 1890, vol. xvi, 

 p. 112), to which he had referred in the course of his remarks 

 on Mr. Blandford's exhibit at the previous meeting. 



" But after we came neere vnto the sun, our dried Penguins 

 bagan to corrupt, and there bred in them a most lothsome 

 and vgly worme of an inch long. This worme did so mightily 

 increase and deuoure our victuals, that there was in reason 

 no hope how we should auoide famine, but be deuoured of 

 these wicked creatures : there was nothing they did not 

 deuour, only yron excepted : our clothes, boots, shooes, hats, 

 shirts, stockings : and for the ship they did so eate the 

 timbers, as that we greatly feared they would vndoe vs, by 

 gnawing thi-ough the ships side. Great was the care and 

 diligence of our captaine, master, and company to consume 

 these vermine, but the more we laboured to kill them, the 

 more they increased ; so that at the last we could not sleepe 

 for them, but they would eate our flesh, and bite like 

 Mosquitos." 



Mr. Barrett asked whether, in this account, it was stated 

 that beetles were seen? It seemed to him that the size 



