vill 
perpendicular to the plane of the bark, whilst the alternate eggs were transversely 
placed, with their shorter axes in the same line with the longer axes of the odd 
numbers, and were supported by longer pedicels which were inclined at about half a 
right angle to the plane of the bark: the object of such an arrangement was difficult 
to imagine, whilst it must necessarily render the process of egg-laying a very complex 
operation. Secondly, a larva, probably of a Lamellicorn beetle, with two fungvid 
excrescences, Spheria, springing from the back of the head, one on each side, like 
ram’s horns. [See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1834, p. xviii.; 1836, pp. vi., xxili:; 1838, p. iv.; 
1839, p. xxxiv.; 1841, p. xxii.; 1842, p. Ixvii.; 1852, p. xxi; 1854, p. xvi. 18057, 
p. xevii.; 1863, p. clxxii.; 1864, p. xliv.; 1865, p. Ixxxix.; for other instances 
of fungoid growths on insects]. And thirdly, four Locustideous larve, about half 
an inch long, attached to a small branch of a tree; one of them was tightly held 
head downwards by the other three, which were themselves so locked in a close 
embrace and had their legs so intricately entangled, that it seemed they had been 
unable to release themselves, and thus had died. 
Mr. F. Smith said that, in Stephens’ ‘Catalogue of British Insects, the genus 
Bembex was included on the authority of Donovan, who had figured B. octopunctata 
as British, but without assigning any precise locality. In the ‘ Eutomologist’s 
Annual’ for 1866, p. 122, he (Mr. Smith) had expressed a hope that this, amongst other 
genera now expunged from our list, might be re-discovered: he had the pleasure of 
exhibiting a specimen of Bembex olivacea (which name was a synonym of, but had 
priority over, B. octopunctata) placed in his hands by a gentleman at Bristol, to whom 
it-was given many years ago by a Dr. Hicks, who said that he had himself captured 
the insect near Gloucester. 
Mr. J. J. Weir exhibited some larve which he believed to be only the common 
meal-worm (Tenebrio), but which were found in a wine-cellar, and had done con- 
siderable damage by eating through the corks of port wine, so that the wine escaped » 
sealing-wax on the head of the cork did not operate as a preventive. Oddly enough, 
though they had attacked the corks of sherry also, they had not completely perforated 
them, but stopped short of the wine. It was suggested as a probable cause for the 
incursion into the cellar that perhaps bran had been used in packing the wine, in lieu 
of saw-dust. 
Mr. W. W. Saunders said that numerous instances of injury done to corks by 
various insects had been brought before the Suciety. [See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1835, 
p. lv.; 1837, p. Ix.; 1848, pp. xxxv., xli.; 1849, p.Ixi.; 1851, p. exiv.; 1852, pp. 
viii., xvii., xxiii.] He remembered a case in which a number of larve of Dermestes 
lardarius, which had been brought into the docks with a cargo of skins, made an 
incursion into a neighbouring warehouse in which were stored some manufactured 
corks; these they perforated and rendered useless: large damages were claimed 
against the Dock Company, and a law-suit seemed imminent, but the matter was 
finally compromised. 
