Election of Meuihers. 



A. H. Haliday, Esq., 23, Harcoiirt Street, Dublin, was balloted for and elected a 

 Member of the Society. 



Exhibitions. 



Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited a splendid new Lamellicorn beetle, of the genus 

 Odontolabris, from Borneo. 



Mr. Moore exhibited a number of cocoons of Megachile lanuta, found in an old 

 buflfalo's horn from Northern India; one of these contained an immature parasite, 

 probably a Hedytrum. 



Mr. Baly exhibited a specimen of the rare Cryptonychus porrectus, GylL, 

 received from Old Calabar by Mr. Murray, being the only specimen known in 

 Britain ; this species is extremely interesting, from the fact of being an American 

 form, though found in Africa. 



Read the following note by Mr. Hewitson, dated the 28th of January : — 



Sound produced by the Peacock Butterjly. 



" One morning about a fortnight ago, whilst dressing, I noticed something upon 

 the floor, which I took to be a dead leaf driven in by the wind, and was surprised when 

 I picked it up and placed it on the table, to find that it was a peacock butterfly 

 {Vanessa lo). They had been cleaning out my room and had driven it from its 

 winter quarters ; I had handled it rather roughly, which it resented, by spreading out 

 its wings horizontally to their fullest extent and rubbing them rapidly together; 

 it produced a distinct sound like the friction of sand-paper: this it continued to 

 repeat for some time and seemed greatly exasperated. Tt might be partly in my own 

 imagination, but its palpi, the position of its legs, every motion seemed to express 

 passion. T brought it down stairs and placed it on a table in the drawing-room, where 

 Mr. Westwood, who was with me at tlie time, heard the noise faintly, but we tried in 

 vain to excite it again to anger. 



" I intended to examine the base of the wings and try to ascertain the means by 

 which it produced the noise, which has never yet been done with the living insect, but 

 it stole away and hid itself so effectually as to elude our search. 



" M. Lacordaire mentions a similar sound produced by butterflies of the genus 

 Ageronia, whilst on the wing, which he compares 'acelui d'un parchemin Ires sec 

 qu'on froisserait entre les mains.' 



" The clicking noise mentioned by Mr. Darwin was produced by a butterfly of the 

 same genus. 



Mr. Douglas observed that the Rev. Joseph Greene had noticed a very similar cir- 

 cumstance in hybernating specimens of the same species, Vanessa lo, of which 

 he communicated a note to this Society, and which is published in the ' Proceedings ' 

 for 1853, page 98. 



Mr. Baly thought the sound was produced by respiratory action, which, doubtless, 

 is suspended during hybernation, and suddenly called into action on the insect being 

 disturbed ; he considered it might be analogous to that produced by the first inspi- 

 rations of air by a newly born infant. 



