Entoinolofjical Society. l'i'21 



Mr. Smith sent for exhibition, preserved in spirits, the example of Aspidoiiiorpha 

 Stfe Crucis which he had exhibited alive ai the June Meetinn^ of the Society, and com- 

 municated the following particulars respeciina; it. "This insect was fifty-six days on 

 the voyage to this country, and lived for si\iy days after iis arrival, making in all one 

 hundred and sixteen days, with no other nourishment thnn a little moisture. During 

 the last week or ten days of its life the bright gohlen lustre became dull copper, or 

 rather dull tarnished gold, but when I found it dead it had regained all its golden 

 brilliancy, which it retains in the spirits.'' 



Mr. Bond exhibited the sexes of a new species of Gelechia, allied to G. piclella, 

 taken by Mr. Barrett on the sand hills, near Dublin, and for which Mr. Stainton had 

 proposed the specific title of" Tarquiniella." 



The President exhibited a specimen of a Spilonota allied to S. dealbana, but dis- 

 tinct from any recorded British species. He had recently casually captured this insect 

 at Mickleham, and was informed that specimens of apparently the same species had 

 been taken last season at Deal, frequenting fir trees, and that Mr. M'Lachlan had 

 also taken and bred a similar species from larches at West Wickham Wood. 



The President also exhibited the following Coleoptera and Hemiptera :— Scraptia 

 fusca and Abdera 4-fasciata, from the Purley Oaks, near Croydon ; Myrmedobia cole- 

 optrata, Fallen (Anthocoris exilis. Fallen), from Mr. Wollaston's collection, a rare 

 species living with ants, and the sexes of which are so dissimilar thet they have been 

 placed in diflFerent genera ; and Microphysa pselaphoides, taken in ants' nests by Dr. 

 Power. 



Professor Westwood exhibited two larvae of (Estrus hominis, which he had received 

 (by the hands of Dr. Hageu) from Count Oslen-Sacken,Eiissian Minister at Washing- 

 ton, who had obtained them from Dr. Leconte, who had himself received them from 

 Honduras. The larvae clearly belonged to the family (Estrida;, but diflFered from the 

 ordinary forms in the greater elongation of the narrow anterior parts of the body and 

 the remarkably strong rows of reflexed spines with which the segments of the hind part 

 of the body are armed. Many accounts have from time to time been published of the 

 occurrence of larvae, supposed to be those of a species of (Estrus, in the human body, 

 but Professor Westwood recollected no instance of a description of the larva being 

 published, sufficiently precise to allow of satisfactory identification. He had indeed 

 been led to the belief that in these recorded cases (certainly so in that of M. Proce) 

 larvffi of Muscidae had been mistaken for (Estri, as it was not improbable that a blow- 

 fly would deposit its eggs either in a slight wound on the body of a sleeping person, or 

 upon the parts covered by a more delicate skin than the other parts of the body, 

 or if the larva was really that of an CEstrideous insect some quadrupedal bot-fly, under 

 pressure of a necessity for the deposition of her ova, might have accidentally been led 

 to lay them upon a human body. The examination of the larvae sent by Count Osien- 

 Sacken seemed to prove that these ideas were erroneous, and that a bot-fly does exist 

 distinct in its larva state from any hitherto described which is found in the human 



body. 



(Since the exhibition of the specimens in question Mr. Bates has informed 

 Professor Westwood that whilst on the Amazons he was attacked by one of these 

 CEstrideous larvje, which formed a tumour upon the calf of his leg, which sup- 

 purated, and the scar of which is still visible. He had also extracted one from the 

 fleshy part of the back of a negro girl who helped in his house. He was induced to 

 believe that the species was only an accidental intruder in such a position, and that it 



