xni 



rejected by birds. The Tchneumonidse appeared to enjoy immunity from the attacks of 

 birds, which Mr. Home attributed chiefly to an acrid smell which most of them 

 emitted. He had seen Dyliscidae taken by birds, and dropped from inability to eat 

 them. lulidas were totally rejected by all animals and birds. 



Mr. Home also mentioned that he had once known a large spider (or rather 

 a Galeodes) killed by the siiu^ of a wasp upon which he was feeding; the Galeodes 

 finished his meal, but sickened and died shortly after. He inquired whether it was 

 from fear, or for the purposeof annoyance, that humble-bees eject fluid when disturbed; 

 and mentioned a similar occurrence which he observed in a hornet at Benares : the 

 hornet was on a window, and, on being touched with a pencil, ejected a clear fluid 

 along the glass, in several lines of from one inch to two inches in length. Mr. Home 

 also exhibiied a sketch from nature of a moth and a hunting spider : the moth was at 

 rest on a small bamboo in a summer-house, and the spider was quietly feeding upon 

 the moth; the question was, how did the spider catch and hold the moth, without 

 any disturbance of the latter? The moth must have been alive when the spider 

 seized him, for the spider would not have cared to suck a dead body. 



Mr. M'Lachlan had seen a Phalangium which had captured, and held in captivity, 

 a Plusia Gamma under similar circumstances. 



Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited a white ant which had been brought in all its stages by 

 Mr. Melliss from St. Helena. (See Prou, Ent. Soc. 1863, p. 185 ; 186fi, p. xii.) The 

 insect was said to have been introduced into the island from the coast of Africa, but it 

 was not referable to any described African species; it had rather the appearance of a 

 West Indian or Brazilian species, and resembled the Termes tenuis of Dr. Hagen. 



Mr. M'liachlan also exhibited a number of black Podurse, probably the same 

 species as that exhibiied by Mr. G, S. Saunders (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1867, p. Ixxxv), the 

 Anura tuberculata of Templeton : the so-called " blight" fell over a duck-pond and 

 favm-yard near Hungerford on the 10th April, and Icoked just as if a sack of soot had 

 been emptied out; it floated for some time on the pond, but soon disappeared from 

 the farm-yard. Mr. M'Lachlan added that he had only that morning found a number 

 of small white Podurse in his own house at Lewisham : some flowers were in a room, 

 one of the flower-pots had been removed, leaving a saucer containing water, on the 

 top of which the spring-tails were floating; but on returning two or three hours later 

 they were all drowned. 



Prof Westwood suggested that they must have passed from the flower-pot into the 

 water before the removal of the former; and Mr. Jenner Weir said that during the 

 present spring he had observed them on several occasions under flower-pots. 



Papers read. 

 The following papers were read: — 



" Notes on Eastern Btittei flies," (Continuation, on the genus Diadema) ; by Mr. 

 Alfred R. Wallace. 



" Descriptions of new or little-known Forms of Diurnal Lepidoptera;" by Mr. 

 A. G. Butler. 



New Purl of ' Transactions.' 



The first part of the "Transactions for 1869" (published in April) was on the 

 table. 



