76 



Two copies of 'A Supplementary Catalogue of British Tineidae. By H. T. Stainton.' 

 Presented by the author. ' The Athenaeum,' from July, 1850 to March 1851 ; by the 

 Editor. ' The Literary Gazette,' January and February ; by the publishers. Bred 

 specimens of Catocala sponsa, C. promissa, Triphaena fimbria, and other British Lepi- 

 doptera ; by Mrs. Vines. About 200 species of British Lepidoptera ; by Mr. Douglas. 



The following gentlemen were balloted for and elected: — Johan Wilhelm Zetter- 

 stedt, Lund: Honorary Foreign Member. H. J. Steuart, Esq., 76, J ermyn -street, 

 and the Rev. J. M. Simkiss, St. Mary's, Oscott, Birmingham ; Ordinary Members. 

 Robert Patterson, Esq., Belfast, and J. C. Hyndman, Esq., Belfast; Subscribers. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a most beautiful specimen of the Lepidopterous Cocytia 

 D'Urvillii, Boisd. ; the only previous example being one in bad condition in the col- 

 lection of Dr. Boisduval. He likewise exhibited, from a collection just received from 

 Mr. Wallace, on the Amazon, Papilio Columbus^recently described and figured in the 

 Society's 'Transactions' by Mr. Hewitson, and three new species of the genus Papilio. 

 Also a specimen of Gymnancyla canella, which he believed to have been taken on the 

 coasl near Southend, being the second known British specimen ; and Diyophilus Ano- 

 bioides, bred from the same stump of broom from which he reared the insect last year. 



The President exhibited living larvae of OZstridae, from reindeer in the Zoological 

 Society's Garden. He observed that Linnaeus stated from six to eight were the usual 

 number on one deer, but in the present case there were from fifty to one hundred, and 

 they were very conspicuous. Mr. Bracy Clark, in his " Memoir on CEstridae " in the 

 ' Linnean Transactions,' had given his opinion that OZstrus Trompe and QE. Tarandi 

 were only sexes of one species ; but from the examination of specimens sent to him 

 by Professor Zetterstedt, he could not concur in this opinion ; moreover, CE. Trompe 

 was not found in the backs of reindeer, but in the frontal sinus. He also exhibited 

 drawings of the head of the larvae of GE. Tarandi and CE. Bovis, showing the mouth 

 destitute of mandibles, and the larvas could obtain nourishment by suction only ; in 

 this respect differing from (E. Equi, in which mandibles were present. 



The President also exhibited drawings made from the mutilated specimen of the 

 parasite upon Fulgora candelaria, received from Mr. Bowring, and exhibited at the 

 meeting last October. The venation of the wings was decidedly of a Lepidopterous 

 type, and the legs were of a Lepidopterous character ; the pupa also, as far as could 

 be ascertained without divesting it of its cottony covering, appeared to be that of a 

 Lepidopterous insect ; but such an one was so anomalous, that more and entire speci- 

 mens were greatly to be desired. 



A note was read from R. Maysmor, Esq., Devizes, accompanying some cocoons of 

 Trichiosoma Lucorum, stating that he believed the imago made its exit from the co- 

 coon backwards ; at least, he always found the exuviae remaining in the passage out, 

 with the head in the interior of the cocoon, and there does not appear to be room for 

 the insect to turn round in the skin it is about to leave behind. 



Mr. F. Smith called the attention of the meeting to a veiy interesting paper inti- 

 tuled "A New Phase of Bee-life," recently published in Dickens's ' Household Words,' 

 from which he read the following extracts, premising that the scene of the discovery 

 was about 170 miles from the mouth of the Essequibo river. 



" Seating myself on the smooth gray trunk of a tree, which lay prostrate across the 

 sluggish water, whose broken limbs shone bright in the gay drapery of a scarlet-blos- 

 somed epiphyte, I lighted my pipe, and taking a book from my pocket, began lazily 

 turning over the pages and lightly gleaning the pleasant thought of a witty and social 



