very slender ; the terminal ventral segment of the abdomen in this, and in 

 other species of the family, is produced into two compressed lobes at its 

 apex, between which the tips of the ovipositor and its sheaths are placed. 

 The structure of these lobes, as exhibited in the drawings, presented various 

 modifications not hitherto noticed or described, and which Prof. Westwood 

 was of opinion would be of much service in specific determination in the 

 group. He further exhibited similar preparations of various species of 

 fleas. The antennae of both sexes of Pulex vespertiliouis, those of a female 

 flea from the nest of a Parus, &c., were beautifully serrated. The head of a 

 cat's flea showed a series of very strong bent spines on either side of the 

 mouth-organs. The genital organs of a male of Pulex irritans showed a 

 very complicated structure, the spermatic vessels being extremely long and 

 convoluted. Finally, he exhibited drawings of a species of Coccophagus, 

 a genus of minute parasites of the family Chalcididas, which attacks the 

 Coccus found on the rind of oranges ; the male, just hatched, had been sent 

 to him on the preceding day by J. W. Gooch, Esq., of Eton, accompanied 

 by the following letter : — " Some time since I sent you a sketch of an insect 

 I had frequently seen in the interior of the Coccus of the orange. This you 

 kindly told me pertained to your genus Coccophagus. The other morning, 

 when watching the movements of the insect in situ, I saw it commence to 

 eat a hole through the skin and covering of the Coccus, and gradually work 

 its body free. As you asked me for a specimen of the perfect insect, I send 

 you one, which I have obtained after five years' search. It seems the most 

 beautiful object I think I ever saw. I have now had it for four days in the 

 accompanying glass cell, and find the best method of illuminating it for 

 microscopic examination is by means of the parabolic condenser, or spot- 

 lens, and then, under a half-inch power, it certainly strikes me as most 

 exquisite." 



Mf. Jenner Weir was glad to find the microscope being now so much 

 brought to the aid of entomological investigation, and remarked on the 

 uncertainty attending the description of the objectives used, inasmuch as 

 the same nominal powers varied immensely in results according to the 

 makers of the glasses. 



Papers read, ^c. 

 Mr. Albert Miiller read the following notes concerning the habits of 

 Anaspis maculata, Fourc. ; — 



" A short time ago Mr. George Norman kindly sent to me, at my request, 

 some large, woody, tumour-like excrescences on birch, from Forres, because 

 I had a notion they might be caused by insect-agency. I am none the 

 wiser as regards their origin even now, but having taken the precaution of 

 consigning them to a separate glass jar, an unexpected little scrap of beetle 

 history has turned up. On the 28th of February last I noticed that a 



