13 



tbe cavernous recesses of the exuviae of the curranl-uioth as a cosey corner in which 

 to spin its web and undergo its metamorphosis. 



Mr. John Curtis communicated the following notes, by Dr. Maclean, of Col- 

 chester, dated 1st May, 185(5 : — 



Economy of Gonepteryx Rhamni. 



" On Friday last the bright sunshine tempted me to the woods in search of the eggs 

 of G. Rhamni, and not without success, you will say, when I tell you I have above a 

 score of eggs of this insect in my possession : it is my intention to acquire the most 

 intimate acquaintance with the economy of this Papilio. I have no doubt respecting the 

 following account: the eggs are laid in succession from the middle of April to the end 

 of June, but the larger portion during the months of April and May ; the larva may 

 be found during the whole of the months of May, June and July: a fine specimen of 

 the perfect insect appears at the end of July, but the greater number during the month 

 of August, then (or many of them at least) live till the following spring, and deposit 

 their eggs on the buds and terminal shoots of Rhamnus frangula, so that it is clear the 

 perfect insect occasionally lives a twelve-mouth ; the females have at the present time 

 well developed eggs within them." 



Memoirs read, 



Mr. Douglas read a paper, by Mr. Adam White, entitled " Descriptions of an ap- 

 parently Nondescript Species of Necrodes, from Borneo, with brief descriptions of three 

 other species from Northern China and India." 



Mr. Smith read a paper entitled " Observations on the Difficulties attending the 

 discrimination of ihe Species of the Genus Stylops," in which he stated that all parts 

 of the body of the male Stylops are of so soft and delicate a nature, that in a few hours 

 after death the entire appearance of the insect is changed, becoming a mere shrivelled 

 mass, and in consequence nearly all the published figures of these insects, having been 

 drawu from cabinet specimens, are mere "miserable caricatures:" he expressed his 

 opinion that it may hereafter appear that we have but oue species of Stylops in this 

 country. 



Mr. Westwood thought Mr. Smith's strictures on the published figures of Stylops 

 rather too severe ; he might at least have made an exception in favour of his (Mr. 

 Westwood's) figures of Stylops Spencei in the third volume of the ' Transactions,' which 

 were drawn from the living insect. 



Mr. Douglas read from Guerin's ' Revue de Zoologie,' for December last, the fol- 

 lowing part of a communication made to the Editor by Dr. Richard : — 



Epeira Senegalensis . 



"The spiders upon which I experimented were taken on a Baobab tree placed in 

 the courts of Goree, where there was a deal of noise : their number on the tree is such 

 that they are seen from afar when the tree is stripped of its leaves ; they appear to live 

 by preference near inhabited places, either, as I have reason to believe, because they 

 like noise, or, more probably, they are kept near to man by the abundance of the in- 

 sects on which they prey, and which are attracted by tiie debris of human alimeuts : 



