( xxii ) 



Barr's Hill, near Oxford. These examples, he pointed out, 

 were of a reddish tint, harmonising with the colour of the soil 

 on which they were found, and in marked contrast to that of 

 normal grey specimens, some of which, taken at Deal and 

 Reading, he showed for comparison. 



The PuESiDENT exhibited specimens of Chersodromia hirta, 

 a Dipterous insect, which were found by Colonel Yerbury 

 under sea-weed at Brora in August 1899. 



Mr. G. W. KiEKALDY exhibited three species of Rhynchota 

 of economic intei-est, to which he referred as follows : — 

 (1) Brachytes hicolor, Westw., a Cinghalese Lygteid (= Coreid, 

 auctt), sent by Mr. E. E. Green as infesting, though scarcely 

 injui'ing, a species of Asparac/ios. (2) DysdercVyS cing^datus, 

 Fabr., a Cinghalese Pyrrhocorid, also sent by Mr. Green ; the 

 nymphs congregate in the flowers of the Cotton-plant and injure 

 them by staining. The genus is well known both in the Old 

 World and the New for the damage its species occasion to 

 cotton crops. (3) Aleyrodicus dugesii, Cockl., a Mexican Psyllid, 

 forwarded by Dr. Duges, who stated that it is noAV attacking 

 the white mulberries at Gvianajuato. 



Mr. Gahan, referring to a subject to which he had called 

 attention at a previous meeting (see Proceedings, p. x), said 

 that some interesting observations by Mr. H. H. Smith, on the 

 habits of the beetles of the Longicorn genus Onychocerus — 

 wrongly named Scorpionus by Mr. Smith, were published in 

 the American Naturalist for 1884 (vol. xviii. pp. 727-8) ; 

 and he then read the following extract from Mr. Smith's paper : 

 — "While engaged in collecting near Rio de Janeiro, I foxmd 

 one of these beetles clinging as visual to the lower side of a log. 

 Seizing it with my forefinger and thumb, I was about to 

 transfer it to the collecting-bottle when, to my surprise, it 

 inflicted on me a pretty sharp sting or prick, which caused me 

 to drop it quickly. In defending itself thus, the insect used 

 its antenna?, spreading them out and then throwing them back- 

 ward and upward with a strong jerk, so as to strike my finger 

 and thumb just behind the nails with the scorpion-like terminal 

 joint. I ti-ied the experiment many times with this and with 

 other specimens, and always with the same result ; I have also 

 noticed it in other species of the genus. The little wound 



