Entomological Society. 147 



its escape. He had also reared the parasitic Ichneumon attached to 

 this species. He also exhibited specimens of the Coccus manniparits 

 of Klug, brought from Arabia by Ehrenberg, as well as some manna 

 brought from Mount Tabor by Lieut. Wellstead ; and exhibited spe- 

 cimens of the Womela, an analogous secretion formed upon the under 

 sides of the leaves of the various species of Eucalyptus in New South 

 Wales by a minute species of Psylla, numbers of which were found 

 secreted amongst the Womela. Mr. Westwood had been informed 

 by Mr. Gould, that for several months last year this secretion formed 

 a large portion of tbe food of the natives. The insects are attacked 

 by a minute and very beautiful parasite of the genus Encyrtus. Mr. 

 Harrington also stated that the genus Eurymela produces a kind of 

 manna on the Eucalypti, and which falls to the ground in the shape 

 of small white crystals. 



A letter was read from W. Spence, Esq., inclosing an extract from 

 a letter from his son R. Spence, Esq., giving an account of the dis- 

 covery, by Professor Schiodte, of as many as twenty species of blind 

 insects of different orders and genera, all new, in the caves of Styria ; 

 so that it would appear that there exists a subterranean fauna of blind 

 animals. Ten of the insects were Coleopterous. It was mentioned 

 that a Carabideous genus without eyes has lately been described 

 by the German naturalists, and that various blind insects and spi- 

 ders had been found in the mammoth- caves in Kentucky. (See Dr. 

 Erichson's ' Bericht ' for 1844.) 



An extract from a letter addressed by Captain Boys to Mr. West- 

 wood was read, giving an account of the habits of some Indian species 

 of ants, white ants, and other insects : — 



" On our way down towards Sukker, I observed what I consider 

 an undescribed species of Termcs, of an unusually large size, of which 

 I made a note. The workers alone are nearly half an inch long. 

 I never saw such monsters. The nest is peculiar. From the surface 

 of the plain on which I observed these nests, which are conical in 

 form, little hillocks of about six inches high were seen at various 

 distances from each other, from five feet to twenty apart. These 

 were composed of grains of earth worked up to about the size of 

 millet seeds, and were quite loose, and might be taken up in hand- 

 fuls. Inside each of these heaps, a raised structure, branching off 

 in three or four short arms, was to be found, with an internal passage 

 from the surface of the earth to each branch : but how the creatures 

 contrived to cover the whole without appearing outside is left to 

 conjecture. The apex of each cone was about three-quarters of an 

 inch from the arborescent-looking structure inside. The latter was 

 also composed of small pellets of earth, but half as fine as the super- 

 incumbent grains, and were moreover glued firmly to each other. I 

 removed the earth from the outside of several nests, and blew away 

 all the pellets, leaving only the stump sticking erect from the earth. 

 At the top of the latter and at the end of each branch was an orifice, 

 — the continuation of the internal canal. In about ten minutes hosts 

 of the inhabitant ants came up with earth freshly manipulated, and 

 began pouring their pellets out of each orifice : the latter of course 



10* 



