114 



V 



wax palm of the Brazils, Copemicia cerifera, were exhibited, together with the beetles 

 reared from them. These were purchased by Mr. Weslwood at the sale of the 

 Society's exotic collection, and are now in the Hopeian Museum at Oxford. 

 The beetles agreed with Gyllenhal's diagnosis of Bruchiis Bactris in Schonherr 

 (i. p. 93). 



Latreille's Bruchus curvipes (described and figured by Humboldt, Obs. de 

 Zoologie, p. 158) was obtained from the fruit of a palm near Serullo, in New Spain. 

 It has longer black antennas, with entire joints. Germar's Bruchus ruficornis infests 

 cocoa nuts brought to Europe, — the fruit, apparently, of a species of Bactris (probably 

 Bactris minor); it differs from Latreille's species in having red fore legs and 

 antennae, but is given as synonymous with it by Schonherr, without, as appears, suf- 

 ficient cause. 



Sir William Hooker had forwarded to Mr. Westwood a larva of one of these large 

 species of Bruchi found in the interior of a seed of a palm (a species of Astrocaryum 

 from Bahia) which had been received at the Royal Gardens, Kew : the larva differed 

 in no respect from that of the Coquilla nut. Mr. Westwood had also obtained the 

 nut of another kind of palm, in the interior of which was found a perfect beetle, which 

 seems in no respect to differ from Bruchus ruficornis of Germar. Mr. Kirby also pos- 

 sessed a specimen of a large and closely-allied Bruchus, evidently obtained, from its 

 not fully-developed state, from the interior of some nut, also purchased by Mr. West- 

 wood, but having much larger and more strongly-serrated posterior femora. A speci- 

 men of the Coquilla-nut beetle itself is preserved in spirits in the Christ Church 

 Museum, Oxford, in company with the nut and its larva. It also seems to agree 

 with Bruchus ruficornis, so as to preclude the necessity of giving it a distinct 

 specific name, until a more detailed examination of the allied species can be made. 

 The species allied to Bruchus ruficornis are distinguished from Bruchus Bactris, 

 not only in the smooth intermediate joints of the antennas, but also in having the 

 sutural stria of the elytra simple at its base ; in the latter species it is accom- 

 panied at the base by two very short rows of punctures like an acute V. 



May 7, 1860. 



J. W. Douglas, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Donations, 

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

 donors: — ' Fragments Anatomiques surquelques Elaterides;' ' Fragments Anatomiques 

 sur quelques Coleopteres ;' 'Fragments d'Anatomie Entomologique ;' 'Note sur 

 I'Absence dans le Nemoptera lusitanica d'un Sysleme nerveux Appreciable ; ' 

 ' Description des Galles du Verbascum et du Scrophularia, et des Insectes qui les 

 Habitent, pour servir a I'Histoire du Parasilisme ;' ' Memoire sur une nouvelle espece 

 de Belostoma (B. algeriense) et Reflexions sur ce genre d'Hemipteres Aquatiques; ' 

 ' Recherches Anatomiques sur les Hymenopteres de la Famille des Urocerates ;' 

 ' Fragments d'Anatomie Entomologique sur les Buprestides, suivis de la Description 

 d'une espece nouvelle de Cychrus d'Espagne ; ' ' Histoire Anatomique et Physiologique 



