2 . 
Prof. Westwood remarked that great destruction of specimens of the more beauti- 
ful species of butterflies had taken place in Paris; large prices (larger than Entomo- 
logists could afford) had been given for the finest and most brilliant examples, which 
were used for ladies’ head-dresses, &c., and of course destroyed in an evening. The 
feathery imitations were equally beautiful, more lasting, and would render unnecessary 
the wholesale destruction of the originals. 
The Secretary exhibited part of the head of a coffee-cask recently received from 
Ceylon by Mr. R. L. Thomson, of Alderney Road, Mile End; the wood was 
thoroughly riddled by larve, apparently of the genus Anobium. 
Prof. Westwood remarked that a Committee had for some time been engaged 
at South Kensington upon the question of the injury done to ancient wood-carving. 
The Report of that Committee will shortly be ready, and he thought it would be 
found both interesting and valuable. 
Sir J. Hearsey exhibited a collection of Coleoptera from India and China ; the 
principal part from the former country. 
Prof. Westwood exhibited a specimen of “ wild silk” placed in his hands by Mr. 
Daniel Hanbury; it had come from the State of Salvador, Central America, and was 
the work of a colony of larve described as “ dark bluish, feeding on an oak bearing 
large acorns,” the moth being “ dirty gray.” The Professor discussed at some length 
the probability of the silk being made economically useful. 
Mr. F. Smith exhibited a collection of wasps’ nests—one of Vespa rufa, the rest of 
V. vulgaris; they were in various stages of formation, the earliest consisting of only a 
single cup containing the first egg, others consisting of three or four cups, whilst 
others again were more complete. The whole had been artificially obtained 
by Mr. Stone, who tempted the wasps to build by excavating holes in banks and fur- 
nishing them with foot-stalks ; in fact, Mr. Stone appeared to possess the power of 
inducing wasps to build nests of almost any shape he pleased. 
Mr. T. W. Wood (who was present as a visitor) exhibited a mass of conjoined 
‘cells which had been found embedded in a piece of Honduras mahogany at Chatham 
Dockyard ; the cells were in form like the honey-pots of a humble-bee, brittle and 
very light, and composed apparently of comminuted or triturated and agglutinated 
wood and earth. Mr. Bates suggested that they might possibly be chambers of a spe- 
cies of Termes, though he thought they were too large. No other Member hazarded 
a conjecture as to the origin of the phenomenon. 
Prof. Westwood exhibited a further selection from the captures in the Zambesi 
country of the Rev. H. Rowley, and read the following description of a gigantic spe- 
cies of Moluris :— 
Mouuvris (PHANEROTOMA) RowLEIAna, 2. sp. 
Species magna et insignis, M. Bertolonii fere equalis. Capite et pronoto nigris, 
opacis, punctatissimis ; prothorace subquadrato, lateribus rotundatis, latitu- 
dine majori paullo ante medium. Elytris oblongo-ovatis, prothorace paullo 
latioribus, luteo-villosis, singulis costis quatuor obliquis nigris nitidis instruc- 
tis; sutura nigra, nitida. Corpore subtus et pedibus nigtis, subnitidis, punc- 
tatissimis ; abdomine leviori. 
Long. corp. unc. 135 prothoracis, lin. 6; elytr. lin. 14. 
Habitat prope fluv. Shire, Zambesi. 
Revdo. H. Rowley capta, et ad Museum Entomologicum Oxonie benevole com- 
municata. 
