( ix ) 

 on HydroiMidx belonging to the European Fauna, with 

 descriptions of New Species," and 



Mr. R. W. C. SiiELFOUTj, M.A., communicated "A Note 

 on Elymnias borneensis, Wallace." 



Dr. F. A. DixEY read the following communication : 

 In the late Professor Westwood's " Introduction to the 

 Modern Classification of Insects," vol. ii, 1840, p. 352, under 

 the head of Hblicokiid^., there occurs the following passage : 

 " A curious circumstance has been recently published relative 

 to one of the species, Fuplcea {JJanais) hamata, MacLeay, an 

 inhabitant of New Holland, where it abounds to such an 

 extent, that it is employed as an article of food by the natives, 

 who call them Bugong, and collect them by bushels, and then 

 bake them by placing them upon heated ground." References 

 are given by Westwood to Bennett's "Wanderings in New 

 South Wales," and to Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise. 



Thinking that the existence of a Euploia (or, as it would 

 now be called, a Tirumala) used as human food was a matter 

 of considerable interest, I looked up the passage in Bennett's 

 " Wanderings." It is as follows : 



"The Bugong moths . . . collect on the surfaces and 

 also in the crevices of the masses of granite in incredible 

 quantities : to procure them with greater facility, the natives 

 make smothered fires underneath those rocks about which 

 they are collected, and suffocate them with smoke, at the 

 same time sweeping them off frequently in bushels-full at a 

 time. After they have collected a large quantity, they proceed 

 to prepare them, which is done in the following manner. 

 A circular space is cleared upon the ground, of a size 

 proportioned to the numl>er of insects to be prepared ; on it 

 a fire is lighted and kept burning until the ground is con- 

 sidered to be sufficiently heated, when, the fire being removed, 

 and the ashes cleared away, the moths are placed upon the 

 heated ground, and stirred about until the down and wings 

 are removed from them ; they are then placed on pieces of 

 bark, and winnowed to separate the dust and wings mixed 

 with the bodies : they are then eaten, or placed in a wooden 

 vessel called a * Walbun,' or ' Culibun,' and pounded by a 

 piece of wood into masses or cakes resembling lumps of fat, 



