70 



instant, in a nest of Formica fusca, at Hampstead ; and a specimen of LopLnpteryx 

 Carmelila bred from the egg. 



Mr. Foxcroft sent for exhibition specimens of Anchomenus Ericeti, Panz.y and 

 other Coleoptera and Lepidoptera taken at Rannoch. 



Dr. Power exhibited a box of British Coleoptera containing a fine series of Drypta 

 emarginata, Sunius tiliformis, Meloe brevicollis, and other rare species; also three 

 specimens of Hetaerius sesquicornis, taken from nests of Formica fusca at Hampstead. 



Mr. Croker exhibited a box of Indian Locustidae and Gryllidae ; also a fan used 

 in Egypt to drive away the mosquitos. 



The President observed that similar fans were used in the East Indies for this 

 purpose. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited a mutilated specimen of Acherontia Atropos which he 

 had lately found in a bee hive. He observed that he had never heard of any instance 

 having been recorded, in this country, of this moth proving destructive to bees ; but 

 his attention had been lately drawn to one of his hives, the stock of which did not 

 commence working, and gradually got weaker and weaker, till at last scarcely 100 bees 

 remained. On turning up the hive he discovered the remains of the specimen of A. 

 Atropos, which he exhibited, attached to the comb. Whether the loss of the stock was 

 to be attributed in any way to the moth was a matter of conjecture. 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited a gigantic species of flea, for which he proposed the 

 specific name of hnperator. The specimen, which is about twenty times the size of 

 the common Pulex irritans, was found dead in a bed at Gateshead. 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited some cloth-like texture from South America, said to 

 have been found inside a tree, and to be the production of some insect. 



Major Vardon exhibited some insects brought from the interior of Africa by Dr. 

 Livingstone, respecting which Mr. Westwood furnished the following details. 



" The insects which Dr. Livingstone has placed in my hands are — 



" 1. The larva of a coleopterous insect, of which I am unable to determine the 

 family, but think it may possibly be Cebrionideous. The head is flat, nearly circular, 

 and furnished with strong triangular jaws; the six legs short and jointed ; the body 

 rather thickly clothed with short black hairs, and terminated by two large and very 

 strong, horny, conical appendages, which shut together on their inner edge. The 

 insect has the habit of burying its head in the sand, leaving exposed its strong for- 

 ceps-like caudal appendage, which it moves about so as to attract the attention of 

 passing insects, which, on approaching, are seized by it, and then conveyed to the 

 mouth and devoured. It thus has a certain amount of analogy with the ant-lion, but 

 is quite unlike that insect, both structurally and in the details of its habits. 



" 2. Two larvae of another species of beetle, short, thick and fleshy, black in colour, 

 with a yellow head ; which seem to me to be referrible to the family Chrysomelidae. 

 When crushed, they are employed by the natives for the purposes of poisoning the 

 tips of their arrows, which are dipped into the fluids of the body. 



" 3. A species of tick, about a quarter of an inch long, with a granulated and 

 much-wrinkled body ; which burrows into the feet of the natives between the toes, 

 causing inflammation, which gradually ascends the legs, and other diseases. It is 

 closely allied to the so-called poisonous bug of Persia, Argas reflexas. With the spe- 

 men were about forty young, with the cast skins of the eggs from which tliey had 



