ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vll 



5lh April, ISl?. 

 W. Spence, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Donations. 



Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. Vol. iii. 

 part 4. 



Proceedings of the same Society. July to November, 1846, 

 and index. Presented by that Society. 



Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. Vol. vii. part 2. 

 Presented by tliat Society. 



The Agricultural Magazine for March, 1847. By the Editor. 



A Treatise on the Potatoe Disease. By J. Parking. Presented 

 by the Author. 



Mr. Westvvood called the attention of the Society to the last 

 mentioned work, in which Mr. Smee's views were repudiated ; 

 and at the same time took occasion to allude to the fallacious 

 opinions tliat the potatoe disease was attributable to insects, which 

 had so extensively gained ground even among well informed 

 persons, mentioning as an instance thereof that no fewer than four 

 of the bishops who had preached on the recent fast-day had 

 alluded to insects as its cause. He likewise referred to the 

 equally fallacious pi'oposal to destroy insects injurious to vege- 

 tables in vast numbers, by means of galvanized wires drawn over 

 the fields or plants infected with the insects, which was founded 

 on the plan of deterring slugs from attacking plants by galvanic 

 rings. Messrs. Stephens and Ingpen also mentioned other in- 

 stances of the disease of the potatoe having been attributed to 

 insects, and Mr. Spence alluded to the necessity which was thus 

 clearly proved to exist for making the study of natural history, 

 and especially of Entomology, a branch of education. 



A note was read by F. Walker, Esq., with prospectuses of his 

 proposed work on the Aphides, and stating that the Aphis vaslator 

 of Smee was a distinct species. 



Mr. F. Bond exhibited a specimen of Graphiphora tristigma, 

 taken at Darenth at the end of June last ; also a species of 

 Noctuidce, new to Britain, taken at Yaxley Fen at the end of 

 July. 



Mr. Ingpen exhibited some cocoons apparently of a Tinea or 

 Yponomeuta, which had been found under boards lying upon sand> 

 and which were externally covered with grains of sand, 



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