109 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a collection of butterflies recently received from Mr. P. 
Bouchard from Santa Marta; and read a letter from that gentleman, dated the 30th 
of June, 1865, in which the writer stated that they were collected about 100 miles in 
the interior, in a valley about seventy miles west of the Snowy Mountains, and about 
the same distance from the Magdelena River; they had been brought from the 
interior on a mule’s back; the writer had obtained very decent apartments in a house 
where the next neighbour was thirty miles off, was in good health and spirits, and had 
become used to the heat of the country. 
Lieut. R. C. Beavan sent from Calcutta some exquisite drawings of the Tusseh 
silk-worm and moth, which were exhibited. 
With reference to a statement in the ‘ Journal of the Society of Arts’ of the 4th of 
August, 1865, that “the silk-worm culturists in France announce the birth or hatching 
of the larva of Bombyx Atlas; this gigantic moth has never before been seen alive in 
Europe,” Mr. F. Moore mentioned that he had bred Bombyx Atlas in London more 
than a year ago. 
Prof. Westwood had been informed that the Yamamai silk had entirely failed this 
year in Holland. He had recently reared some of the Ailanthus silk-worm, and 
found them sluggish in habit, feeding only at night; with the exception of young 
larve, less than half an inch long, he never found one to feed by day; when a moult 
took place, and immediately after it had escaped from the old skin—at a time there- 
fore when any movement must be inconvenient to it—the larva invariably turned 
round and at once ate up the old skin; he had noticed that the skin was covered with 
a light powder, and this appeared to be the attraction to the larva. 
Referring to Mr. Stone’s communication, read at the previous Meeting (ante, p. 105), 
on the number and early appearance of wasps, Mr. Stainton remarked that though 
wasps were so numerous in the spring, there were scarcely any at the present time, 
when fruit was abundant and ripe; for some weeks past he had seen two wasps and 
two only. 
Mr. W. W. Saunders corroborated Mr. Stainton as to the almost entire dis- 
appearance of wasps, whereas earwigs were more plentiful than ever. 
Prof. Westwood had not seen a wasp for two months; he thought their absence 
was to be accounted for by-the remarkably heavy rain-falls which had occurred on two 
or three occasions, in May, in June, and more recently, whereby the nests had been 
swamped. 
Mr. Saunders replied that that explanation was not applicable to the neighbour- 
hood of Reigate, where the rain-fail, taken month by month, was not so great as last 
year, when wasps were exceedingly abundant; and there had not been any single 
rain-fall of one inch, whereas in previous wasp-abounding years, as much as three 
inches had been registered at a single rain-fall. 
Mr. Stainton observed, moreover, that a heavy rain-fall was local only, whilst the 
extinction of the wasps appeared to be general. 
Mr. C. A. Wilson, Corresponding Member, of Adelaide, communicated the 
first portion of some “ Notes on the Buprestidae of South Australia,” which was 
read. 
Mr. Dunning exhibited a curious specimen of Fidonia piniaria, which he had 
captured on the llth of June, 1850, in a pine wood at Farnley, near Huddersfield. 
It was well known that the sexes of this moth were very different in appearance, and 
were described by Linnzus as two species, the male as Phalena piniaria, “ alis fuscis, 
