XXVlll 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a larva-case, which he supposed to belong to a species of 

 CEceticus, found by Mr. J. K. Lord in the plains near Mount Sinai : numbers of the 

 larvae were seen crawling on the sand, no tree or bush being near, and the only 

 plant growing in the neighbourhood being a species of wild sage. The larva-case ] 

 appeared to be formed principally of pieces of grass, arranged longitudinally. i 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited two specimens of Ileliothis armiger, bred from l 

 larvae which fed in tomatoes. An importation of tomatoes from Spain or Portugal 

 had been greatly damaged by a number of green larvaB, with black lines and spots, 

 which fed in the fruit, where there was apparently juice enough to drown them, and 

 which ultimately produced the moths exhibited. 



Prof Weslwood exhibited drawings and dissections of several remarkable new 

 forms of PselaphidtE. 



Mr. Albert Miiller exhibited a photograph of a Coleopterous monstrosity, a speci- j 

 men of Pleroslichus Prevostii with eight legs : on either side of the left hind leg ' 

 (i. e. before and behind the normal hind leg) was a supernumerary limb of somewhat , 

 stunted growth, but structurally perfect : there were apparently three distinct coxae 

 fitting into three separate sockets iu a single expanded trochanter. The beetle was 

 found in Switzerland, and Mr. Miiller had seen it alive: the extra legs were simply 

 carried, and not used to assist in locomotion. 



With reference to the locust exhibited at the previous Meeting (an/e, p. xxiv.), the 

 President had received the following from Mr. Edwin Brown: — 



"I am informed that when my specimen of a new locust was exhibited at the last 

 Meeting of the Society, it was suggested that the occurrence might have been 

 brought about by the introduction of the insect into the brewery in an empty returned 

 cask. I think such a suggestion is untenable, inasmuch as two specimens of the same 

 species were captured iu diiferent parts of the town of Burton-on-Trent, and one 

 caught in Birmingham certainly belongs to the same species. There were several 

 other instances recorded in the papers about the same time of locusts having been 

 captured in Worcestershire, in Nottinghamshire, and at Waterford. It has not yet 

 been proved that these examples were all of the new species, but it is highly probable 

 that this was so, as the peculiar positions in which the locusts have been captured this 

 year all indicate, if I may so term it, an unsophisticated disposition of the animal, 

 widely different from that of Locusta migratoria, which has nearly always been found 

 in fields or gardens, whilst the species of this year has been captured in two brewery 

 yards, iu the room of a house, upon a man's coat, and (it is said) upon a lady's bonnet, 

 but looking at the difficulty an animal so large would find in getting standing room 

 upon a modern bonnet, there may possibly be some mistake as to the last-mentioned 

 locality. Mr. F. Walker has identified the species as Acridium peregiinum of 

 Olivier, which is dispersed over a large part of Asia and Northern Africa, but has not 

 hitherto been found in Europe." 



(See also, on the recent occurrence of locusts in this country, Newman's Entom. , 

 iv. 367.) I 



Paper read. I 



The following paper was read :— " Note on Boreus hyemalis and B. Westwoodii," 

 by Mr. M'Lachlan. 



