1J5 



The following note by Mr. Weaver was read : — 



" In 1850 I discovered, in Scotland, an empty larva-case of a species of Psychidae, 

 differing from any I had seen before, and having this year found some of the same 

 kind with living larvae in them, from which I have reared the perfect insect, I am sa- 

 tisfied it is a new species. The male very closely resembles Sterrhopterix opacella, 

 which I formerly discovered in Hampshire ; but the female is very dissimilar, as I 

 propose to show by comparison : and, for the sake of brevity, I will call S. opacella 

 No. 1, and the new species No. 2. 



" The Cases. — No. 1 is found on dry ground, and is thickly covered with sprigs of 

 heath, on which plant the larva feeds. No. 2 is found on boggy ground, is much 

 larger than No. 1, has on it no sprigs of heath, and therefore I think the larva does not 

 feed on heath. 



" The Larvae. — No. 1 has the back of a tortoiseshell colour, and the under side of a 

 light colour ; in fact it resembles the larva of S. nigricans, but is smaller. No. 2 has 

 the back nearly black, and the under side black as far as the third pair of legs. 



" The Perfect Insects. — No. 1. The female has no breast, is quite destitute of legs, 

 and the body is much shorter than in No. 2. It has eight or ten distinct tufts of hair? 

 all round each segment of its body ; this hair is very brittle, and as, when the insect 

 falls out of its case it rolls about, the tufts soon get broken. No. 2. The female has a 

 breast, six slender legs (which may easily be overlooked), and two antennae ; it has a 

 black mark down the under side of the breast as far as the legs ; head and thorax shin- 

 ing black, the head protruded. On each side of the body are three patches of hair or 

 down, also one patch on the fore part and one on the hinder part of the back, all of 

 which are so short that they can scarcely be seen without a glass. When the insect 

 drops out of its case, it does not roll about like No. 1, but remains quiet. In conclu- 

 sion, I would remark that any entomologist seeing the two females alive, would at once 

 say they were different species." 



The President observed that the males of these species, under the above circum- 

 stances observed in the females, might be expected to show a difference in the number 

 of the joints of the antennae and in the neuration of the wings. 



The President exhibited a living larva of Hamaticherus Heros, received from Sir 

 T, Pasley, the head of Pembroke Dock-yard, where this insect is often found to be very 

 destructive to the Italian oak timber, into which it burrows to a considerable depth. 

 Living specimens of the perfect insect had been exhibited by the President on previous 

 occasions, received from the same gentleman, who had informed him that the larvae 

 are frequently found when the timber is being cut up at the saw-pits. The son of the 

 Timber Inspector of Pembroke Dock-yard had also obtained eggs of this beetle, which 

 were hatching at the end of October. The President remarked that this larva, from 

 its size, afforded the means of solving the difficulty which had arisen respecting the 

 construction of the anterior portion of the body of this and other longicorn larvae ; the 

 large membranous segment succeeding the head having been considered by some au- 

 thors as a portion of the head itself.* It is true, indeed, that this large segment is des- 

 titute of spiracles, and that the first pair of legs seems placed rather on the fold between 

 it and the following segment ; that, moreover, the first pair of spiracles is placed in the 

 following segment, and, as it is the general principle of larvae to have the first pair of 



*See various papers in the ' Annales de la Socieie Entomologique de France.' 



