9758 Entomological Society. 



that wasps were actually starved to death during a long continuance of wet weather ; 

 this, however, would not account for their present disappearance. 



Prof. Westwood said that one of his correspondents had lately inquired of him 

 whether earwigs were injurious to bees; Mr. Stone's coinmunicaiion answered the 

 qiieslion with respect to wasps, and he had no doubt that earwigs, which were ibis 

 year unprecedentedly numerous, were equally injurious to bees, penetrating the hives 

 aud consuming the larvse. 



Mr. Bond read, from the 'Standard' newspaper of the 2nd of September, the 

 following extract from the letter of a correspondent at Coburg: — 



"In ihe cenlre of the town stands the large and handsome church of St. Maurice, 

 built in the early part of the fifteenth centurv, and having two towers, one unfinished, 

 as is often the case (and history gives the reason here, that Tully, in the Tliirty Years' 

 War, cairifd off the money applicable to the purpose), the other reaching to a total 

 hei-jht of 263 feet, of which the uppermost part is placed over an open belfry, and has 

 a spiral termination of wood, covered with copper, out of which rises a long spindle, at 

 the top of which is a golden ball, and above tiiat again is the weather-cock. Shortly 

 before five o'clock in the afternoon of the 28lh of August, smoke was seen to issue 

 from the small spire above the belfry. The news soon spread that the church-lower 

 was on fire ; the fire alarm was given, according to the German fashion, from the 

 church-tower itself, the brigade of volunteer firemen donned their helmets, and 

 rushed in all haste from their ordinary vocations to the post of (lany;er, an express 

 messenger was sent to the burgomaster, who was gone to a neighbouring village, and 

 the whole population turned out to see the curl of smoke gradually ascending and 

 dissappearing in the clear blue sky above. Nor was their an.xiety for the old church 

 without cause; twice before in its history, once in 1807 and ayain in 1812, had the 

 li"l)tuing set this very tower on fire. But whence now could the fire have come? 

 The spot whence the smoke issued was far above any place in the tower ever used or 

 visited ; the day was briglit and clear, and there had not been, and was not, any sign 

 of :i storm ; the heat of the suu, it is true, was excessive, but no one could remember 

 an instance where fire had been kindled by the lord of day. Whilst the spectators 

 eagerly discussed these questions, hundreds of eyes were watching the ascent of the 

 firemeu from point to point until they reached the belfry under the spire; a scaffold 

 was there hastily constructed, upon which a ladder was raised and the cause and seat 

 of the fire closely investigated. Sundry motions of the fireman on the ladder on high 

 excited no little mystery below, for he seemed to be engaged in conflict with wasps or 

 other warlike insects. The news soon sped to earth that the cause of all this commo- 

 tion was millions of anls which had settled in countless numbers upon the steeple; 

 indeed, all over the upper part of the tower: and as they rose to perform their gyra- 

 tions in the air had created that appearance of smoke which could not be detected as 

 a counterfeit from below. The mysterious motions of the man on the ladder were now 

 explained. They were his attempts to beat off his insectile companions from himself, 

 upon whom they weie quite as disposed to settle as upon the church steeple itself. I 

 am not suflRciently acquainted with insect life to be able to speak scientifically as to 

 the genus of ant that succeeded in so distinguishing itself; but having seen several 

 that were brought down from the spire, I am able to say that they were an ant of a 

 reddish colour, slightly larger than our common black ant, aud of course furnished with 

 wings." 



