( iv ) 



knowledge of the beetle's habits which are so unlike those of 

 other Buprestids." The habit was also briefly mentioned in 

 the " Agricultural Gazette," N.S.W., quoted in Froggat's 

 '■ Australian Insects," p. 160. 



Prof. Poulton said that the instinct of the beetle, like the 

 wonderful fire-resisting powers of many Australian trees, had 

 probably been developed in ancient times as a response to bush- 

 fires due to friction or some other natural cause. Mr. C. F. M. 

 Swynnerton had suggested in conversation the probable hypo- 

 thesis that the beetle is stimulated by the scent of the fire to 

 seek a spot where its larvae can feed upon wood from which 

 volatile protective substances have been driven by heat. 

 Prof. Poulton hoped that Mr. Giles would be able to obtain 

 decisive information concerning this interesting and extreme 

 manifestation of the well-known instinct which impels many 

 Coleoptera to lay their eggs in burnt timber, probably thus 

 ensuring some chemical or physical advantage in the larval food. 

 Mr. G. C. Champion had recently drawn attention {E.M.M., 

 1913, pp. 109, 110) to Mr. A. H. Manee's observation in N. 

 Carolina that the Buprestid Melanophila notata, Lap. et Gory, 

 known locally as the " Fire-bug," was attracted in numbers to 

 a blazing pine-stump and settled near by. Mr. Champion 

 also pointed out that the allied M. acuminata, de G., had been 

 taken on charred pines near Woking and in the New Forest. 



Comm. Walker said that the " fire-beetle " was taken at 

 camp-fires in New South Wales, and Mr. Champion observed 

 that in Canada another Buprestid was known as the " fire- 

 beetle " in consequence of similar habits. 



The Australian Buprestid beetles, Stigmodera con- 

 spiciLLATA, White, and S. cyanura, Hope, proved to be 

 female and male of the same species. — Prof. Poulton ex- 

 hibited the male and female of S. conspicillata. The two sexes 

 had been bred by Mr. H. M. Giles from the same food-plant, 

 Melaleuca sp., and had also been captured by him in coitu, 

 thus confirming Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse's determination in 

 the collection of the British Museum. S. cyanura had been 

 originally described by White as a variety of conspicillata and 

 subsequently by Hope as a different species. Hope had also 

 re-described the female conspicillata as signaticollis and had 



