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Mr. Bates had never in his experience received the impression of any simultaneous 
flashing ; on the contrary, he thought there was the greatest possible irregularity in 
giving and extinguishing the light, and that no concert or connexion existed between 
different individuals ; he regarded the contemporaneous flashing as an illusion, pro- 
duced probably by the swarms of the insects flying amongst foliage, and being con- 
tinually, but only momentarily, hidden behind the leaves. Mr. Bates further remarked 
that the light-emitting insects were Lampyride, not Elateride (Pyrophori), which 
rarely flew by night; the Lampyride had a weak vacillating flight, the number of 
species was very large, and he had himself found eighty or ninety species; several 
species would flit about together, and in the squares of Para he had captured three 
distinct species; it would be curious if there were any concert or action in unison 
between individuals of different species. 
Mr. Clark remarked that the lights of the Lampyride and Elateride were perfectly 
distinguishable ; it was the former which gave the intermittent flashing light. 
Mr. W. W. Saunders had frequently observed the fireflies in Bengal, at Pondicherry 
and at Madras; they usually flew at a height of ten to fifteen or twenty feet, amongst 
the foliage; he had never noticed any flashing or regularity of intermission, and 
thought that each individual was perfectly irregular and independent in the exhibi- 
tion or extinction of its light. 
M. Salle (who was present as a visitor) had never observed any flashing or regular 
intermittency, or simultaneous emission or extinction of the light. 
Prof. Westwood was unable to recall any analogous phenomenon ; the simultaneity 
of the flight of Empis over standing water seemed to be the nearest in point. 
The Rev. H. Clark mentioned that a lady residing near Buckingham Gate had 
introduced into her garden a quantity of peat for horticultural purposes, and now found 
that part of the garden to be very much infested with wood-lice. When asked for 
a remedy, he had suggested the application of hot water, or the importation of toads ; 
he was curious to know whether there was any affinity between the peat and the wood- 
lice >—were the latter breeding in the peat, or feeding on it? 
Mr. W. W. Saunders was in the habit of using a great deal of peat for horticul- 
tural purposes, but he had not noticed that it was particularly acceptable to wood-lice, 
which moreover would not be likely to occur in the places whence the peat was 
brought. 
Prof. Westwood remarked that wood-lice were fond of decaying wood, and the 
taste of peat was probably not dissimilar; he did not think the creatures were intro- 
duced with the peat, but they might be attracted to it, especially in the absence or 
scarcity of their natural pabulum. Frogs, toads, or hedgehogs would eat up the wood- 
lice; but the best way of extirpating them was to pour boiling water upon them, 
which might be readily done, as they were always found to congregate in the angles of 
a frame or other construction, or just within the frame, between the sides thereof and 
the soil or manure within. 
Mr. J. J. Weir did not find that frogs, toads, or birds kept down the wood-lice ; 
he had tried numbers of frogs and toads, but they were ineffectual. 
Mr. Stainton directed attention to a paper by Mr. B. D. Walsh “ On the Insects 
Coleopterous, Hymenopterous, and Dipterous, inhabiting the galls of certain species of 
Willows,” published in the proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia 
for 1864. In this paper the author proposed to name and describe the galls found on 
willows at Rock Island, Llinois, the insects which produce them, and also other insects 
