of the Scolyti in particular, this plan ought to he strongly advocated ere another year 

 sends forth its thousands to still more diminish the number of these noble and beauti- 

 ful ornaments to our parks and pleasure-grounds. 



"The plan I adopt for destroying the insert is very simple: as the frass always 

 indicates the aperture to the lube^and as this always ascends directly upwards, so by 

 paring off the old exuvial bark we lay bare the tube and completely destroy the young- 

 brood. I strongly advocate clearing off all the old bark of elms where the Scolyti 

 abound: in the first place, the trees actually seem to improve by the process; in the 

 next place, the Scolyti cannot find the shelter of the overhanging bark, and therefore 

 are more liable to become the prey of birds; and finally, you detect at once the 

 presence of any fresh attack. I believe the process adopted in France, of taking the 

 whole bark off down to the alburnum, is fraught with great risk; it did not succeed in 

 a tree that I saw, nor can I conceive a more unnatural operation. I merely cut the 

 insect out, the tree is scarcely injured by the process, and a few years obliterates all 

 trace of the operation. The instrument I prefer is a simple draw-shave, known to 

 coopers and carpenters; it is very easily used, and answers the purpose admirably: in 

 using it all we have to do is to cut down to the parent tube, and then lay bare the 

 lateral tubes to their end, taking care that no larvae remain ; the healthy alburnum is 

 therefore not injured, ' causa sublata aeger verelescit.' " 



Mr. S. S. Saunders read a paper intituled " Observations on the Habits of the 

 Dipte'rous Genus Conops," and exhibited the larva, pupa and imago of a species of 

 that genus, which he had reared from Pompilus audax. 



Mr. Westwood read the description of a new genus of Carabideous insects, be- 

 longing to the Scaritides, having the outward appearance of the Heteromerous genus 

 Adelostoma (differing from all the known Scaritides in the opaque surface of the 

 body), and remarkable for the two deep oblique canals on the under side of the head, 

 united behind in front of the very small neck, and within which the antennae are 

 lodged when at rest. The genus is founded on a single species recently sent from 

 the River Amazon by Mr. Bates, to which Mr. Westwood applied the name of 

 Solenogenys faeda. 



Part VI. of the current volume of the Society's 'Transactions' was on the 

 table. 



March 1, 1858. 

 Dr. GuAY, President, in the Chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors: — 'The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,' Vol. xviii. 

 Part 2 ; presented by the Society. 'Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean 

 Society,' Vol. ii. No. 7 ; by the Society. ' The Natural History Review,' Vol. v. 

 No. i ; by the Dublin University Zoological Association. ' List of the Specimens of 

 Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,' Part xiii. Noctuidae ; 

 by the Author, Francis Walker, Esq., F.L.S. 'The Zoologist' for March ; by the 

 Editor. ' Tlie Journal of the Society of Arts' for February ; by the Editor. 'The 



