Exhibitions, (&c. 



Mr, F. Smith called attentiou to the fact that mice are in the habit of 

 devoming the dead pupse of Bonibyx mori contained in what is known as 

 ' silk- waste,' viz., the inner cocoon remaining after the external silken 

 envelope had been wound off. This had been brought to his notice by one 

 of his sons as occurring in a London silk-warehouse, and a parcel of the 

 said ' waste ' brought to him afforded an instance of a double cocoon, or, 

 rather, a very large cocoon containing two pupee lying free within it, and 

 evidently constructed by two larvae working in concert. 



Mr. F. Moore said the cocoons were those of Bombyx mori from China. 

 Double cocoons were not of infrequent occurrence ; and occasioned some 

 additional trouble in the winding process. Mr. Jenner Weir alluded to the 

 occurrence of double cocoons of Eriogaster lanestris ; and Mr. Miiller 

 remarked on an analogous occurrence among species of sawflies, though this 

 was scarcely a parallel instance, inasmuch as the sawfly larva merely used 

 one side of an already constructed cocoon as a foundation for its own, and 

 did not act in concert with its fellows. 



Mr. Butler exhibited drawings (and a dried specimen) of parasitic larvae 

 that had emerged from the bodies of caterpillars of Pygsera bucephala, which 

 they almost equalled in size. He had not been able to determine the insect 

 to which the larvae belonged, as these latter died after spinning a quantity of 

 threads, partly black, partly white, on the surface of the earth in the vessel 

 in which they were placed. It was suggested that they probably pertained 

 to some large species of the family Tchueumonidae. 



Dr. F. Buchanan White communicated the following extracts from his 

 note-book respecting the habits of a species of ant in Italy, bearing upon 

 Mr. Moggridge's remarks on the storing of seeds by ants at Mentone, as 

 noticed by Mr. F. Smith at the meeting on the 1st of January (See Proc. 

 Ent. Soc, 18T1, p. xlvii.):— 



" Capri, June 3, 1866. In the afternoon to the Punta Tragara, where a 

 colony of ants afforded us much amusement. These little insects had a 

 regular road, made by cutting away the grass and other plants in their way. 

 This road was about one inch and a half wide and several yards long, and 

 led to a large clump of plants in seed. Along this road a long train of 

 ants were perpetually travelling to the nest (or formicarium), bearing with 

 them pods of Leguminous plants, seeds of grass and of Compositae (Chrysan- 

 themum segetum), &c. The perseverance with which a single ant would tug 

 and draw a pod four times his own length was very interesting ; sometimes 

 three or four ants would unite in carrying one burden. Near the formicarium 

 was a great mass of dehris, consisting of empty pods, twigs, emptied snail- 



