VI 



one of them had hatched, and there was unmistakeable evidence of the recent 

 emergence of a moth from the pupa: he had no doubt the moth exhibited was the 

 produce of that pupa. Mr. F. Moore recognized the species as Saturnia pyretorum 

 (Westw. Cab. Orient. Ent. p. 49, pi. 24, fig. 2). 



Dr. Wallace mentioned that he had availed himself of the sample or pattern post 

 for the transmission of boxes of silk-worms or their eggs : so long as there was an 

 aperture at. each end of the box, which apertures might be covered with perforated 

 zinc or other material, but left it ascertainable that there was no letter enclosed, no 

 objection was raised by the Post-OflBce authorities; and he had lately sent a box by 

 post to Japan for eggs at a cost of 4s., which when it last came thence as a parcel had 

 cost 47s. Mr. Home added that bird-skins were now frequently sent from India by 

 sample post. 



Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited three male specimens of Dilar Hornei (Ent. Mo. Mag. 

 V. 239), a new species from India of a genus remarkable amongst the Neuroptera 

 for the possession of pectinate antennae. 



Mr. Home, by whom the species was brought to this country, said the insect was 

 not uncommon in Norlh-West India, on the hill sides, amongst grass in damp places, 

 but not near water: the female had a long yellow-brown ovipositor shaped like a 

 scimitar, which, so far from looking flexible, had the appearance of being very stiff. 



Mr. Home exhibited sheets of the inner portion of the bark of Pinus longifolia, 

 which he had found useful in India as a substitute for cork: it was tolerably soft, and 

 the resin was not injurious to insects. 



Prof. Weslwood mentioned that in the previous month he had seen exhibited at 

 Oxford a full-grown larva of Larapyris noctiluca, which was distinctly luminous. 



Mr. J. J. Weir exhibited a mass of larvae of Tipula from Blackheath, where acres 

 of laud were so infested that there seemed to be more larvae than earth. In Greenwich 

 Park the grass was, at this early period, almost destroyed by them. Rooks, starlings 

 and sparrows appeared to be busy in the neighbourhood, but no diminution in the 

 number of the grubs was observable. 



Mr. Bond mentioned that he had once known four hundred of these larvae taken 

 out of the crop of a pheasant. 



Papers read. 



Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse read a paper " On a new Genus and some new Species 

 of Coleoptera belonging to the Family Lucauidae." 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir read a paper " On Insects and Insectivorous Birds, and 

 especially on the Relation between the Colour and the Edibility of Lepidoptera and 

 their Larvae." 



Mr. A. G. Butler read a paper " On some Caterpillars, &c., which are unpalatable 

 to their Enemies." 



Mr. Weir's experiments were suggested by the remarks of Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, 

 reported in Froc. Eut. Soc. 1867, p. Ixxx. : the conclusions at which lie arrived were, 

 that, as a rule, hairy and spinous larvce were rejected by birds (unless the cuckoo were 

 an exception) ; but he doubted whether the mechanical difScuky of swallowing them 

 was the cause of their rejection, and rather thought that the hairs were the con- 

 comitant of a disagreeable quality of which they acted as an indicator; that bright 

 and gaily-coloured larvae, were, as a rule, refused ; but that smooth larvae of a greenish 

 or dull brown colour, such as are for the most part nocturnal in their habits, and those 



