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that species in the Stephensian collection were examples of the Formica umbrata of 

 Nylander : the specimen exhibited Mr. Smith stated to be the only irii':' example of 

 F. brnnnea which he had seen capluved in this coiintiy ; it was taken at. Deal. The 

 second species, Myrmica lippula of Nylander, was discovered by Mr. Read'ii,' near 

 Plymouth, in a nest of Formica fiisca. The ihiid species was Msrmici' nilidnlu of 

 Nylander, found by Mr. VVateihouse, in the nest of Formica lufa, iu the New Forest, 

 and also at Weybridj^e. 



Mr. Smith also exhibited two specimens of the rare Ponera coniracla; ihey were 

 workers. Hitherto most, if not all, of ihe specimens taken had been males or females. 

 These examples were taken by Dr. Power at Brij^hloii. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited specimens of a species of earwig, Forficul.nnavitinia, new 

 to this country, which had been found iu p^reat numbeis on the coast of Noi thiimber- 

 land by Mr. Bold, and subsequently by Mr. Wailes; also ;i specimen of Rhizophagus 

 ferrugineus found inside a ripe plum. 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited a specimen of the venomous lly of Central Africa, 

 known by the natives under the nan)e of the Izrlze, brought from J/ake Tchad by 

 Major Frank Vardon. Mr. W. had published a description of this insect (which be- 

 longs to the family Muscidae, and is nearly allied to the coinmoii Stomoxys irritans of 

 our apartments) in the ' Pi-oceedings of the Zoologic:il Society,' u ider the name of 

 Glossinamorsitans, after an examination of two other African species of thesame genus 

 which had been previously described by Mr. Walker in the British Museum 'Cata- 

 logue of Diptera.' Mr. Westwood referred to an article by Mr. Bracy Clark, published 

 in the 'Zoologist' for 1857 (p. 5720), in which the writer slates that "a considerable 

 degree of uncertainty, and even misappreliension, appears to prevail about the fly that 

 Dr. Livingstone so interestingly describes as annoying the cattle in Africa, and which 

 he designates the tzetze, its African appellation. Although introduced as a new spe- 

 cies, I beg to observe that it is a very old one under a new name,— the fly so feelingly 

 described by Moses of old," which he considers to be identical with the CEstrus Bovis 

 or ox bot-fly. Now, in the flrst place, the CEstrus Bovis is thus assumed to be a na- 

 tive of Central Africa ; secondly, it is assumed that the animals destroyed by the 

 Izetze are killed from wounds in the back made by the bots or larvae ; and, thirdly, it 

 is assumed either that oxen alone are destroyed, or that the Africun individuals of the 

 CEstrus Bovis attack other animals as well as oxen. Mr. Westwood, however, believed 

 that there was not the slightest proof that CEstrus Bovis is an inhabitant of any part 

 of Africa. He also read an extended series of extracts from the writings of Andersson 

 (' Lake Ngaini '), Vardon, Oswell, Livingstone and Gordon Gumming, proving that 

 the death of the animals which have been the victims of the tzetze is the result of 

 poison injected by the proboscis of the insect, the precise mode of action of the diffe- 

 rent organs of the mouth having even been observed, and the course of the disease 

 with its symptoms carefully described ; whilst, in the third place, it is unquestion- 

 able, from the remarks of these writers, that horses, sheep, and even dogs, as well as 

 oxen, are destroyed by the tzetze, there being not the slightest proof on record of an 

 CEstrus thus indiscrimately attacking more than one species of quadruped. Mr. 

 Bracy Clark adds his belief that " this African tzetze is the real patronymic of the 

 French Estre, made more pronounceable by introducing more vowels and fewer con- 

 sonants, and then from it we get the Latin CEstrus and the Greek Oistron." Such a 

 system of derivatives appeared, however, to Mr. Westwood to be rather inconsistent. 

 It might perhaps, however, be true that all the names had a common origin, deriving 



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