188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
specimen I found had buried itself so far into the stem as just 
to leave its posterior part exposed. They are both beetles, 
about a quarter of an inch in length, black in colour, and 
have a large head of peculiar shape, well adapted, no doubt, 
to contain powerful muscles and mandibles for tearing the 
tough woody fibre of the stem of the plant; but I leave their 
description to the entomologists. The office these creatures 
are no doubt intended to fulfil in Nature’s economy is to 
assist in keeping the tropical vegetation in check. They 
burrow into the stem of the tree, are rewarded by the sap and 
nourishment it affords, and are liberated, after performing 
this task, by a gust of wind snapping the undermined and 
weakened stem across. They are not found in other trees or 
shrubs than the one alluded to. The beetle turns on his side 
while boring, his back being towards the bark: in this 
manner his form suits the circumference of the stem.” 
White Ant bred at Kew.—Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited 
specimens of a white ant (Calotermes sp.), recently bred at 
Kew from a sample of the wood of the tree (Trachylobium 
Hornmannianum) that produces the gum copal of Zanzibar. 
Deiopeia pulchella in Cornwall.—Mr. Stainton read a 
letter he had received from the Rev. P. H. Newnham, of 
Stonehouse, Devon, stating that he had taken two living 
specimens of Deiopeia pulchella, on the opposite side of the 
river Tamar, in Cornwall. Mr. Stainton remarked on the 
unusual circumstance of the insect having been captured at 
such an early season as the month of May. 
A Living Mantid exhibited—Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse 
sent for exhibition a living specimen of a Mantid (Empusa 
pauperata), in the larva or pupa state, brought from Hyéres 
by the Rey. Mr. Sandes, of Wandsworth. The captor stated 
that he had supplied it with flies, &c., in the hope of ascer- 
taining the mode in which it seized them, but that he could 
not induce it to eat anything while he was looking on. 
Mr. Stainton suggested that if he had put a living spider in 
the cage it would probably have seized it immediately. 
The Coffee-borer of Natal.—The Secretary read the fol- 
lowing note, which he had received from Mr. William D. Gooch, 
of Spring Vale, Little Umhlanga, Natal, respecting the habits 
of the Longicorn “ coffee-borer of Natal” :—“ The egg, as far 
as we can determine, is laid about the level of the soil, about 
the middle of December, at a time when the trees look most 
