The Zoologist— February, 1866. 109 



rustic garden-seat from which proceeded a noise like many watches simultaneously 

 tickinjr, and which was solely caused by Xylophagous insects. 



Mr. McLachlan mentioned that on one occasion he had heard a loud noise inside 

 an elm tree, and on examination it proved to be nothing more than a swarm of Sco- 

 lytus gnawing away at the wood. 



Several Members said thai, as they understood the popular account of the Ano- 

 bium, the tapping was not represented as being external ; it was the fact of the noise 

 being heard, whilst nothing was visible which could be suggested as producing it, that 

 caused tiie ignorant to dread the so-called death-watch. 



The Rev. J. Greene exhibited eight moths bred by him from pupae which had 

 been sent to him by Mr. Batty, of SheflSeld, as pupae of Acidalia subsericeata : from 

 these had emerged one moth which was undoubtedly A. subsericeata, one which did 

 not agree with any species known to him, and six which were clearly referable to the 

 recently-described A. mancuniata of Dr. Knaggs. 



Mr. F. Moore produced for inspection a series of well-executed plates of the 

 insects of N. America, engraved by Mr. Townend Glover, of the State Department of 

 Agriculture : these plates were a portion only of an extensive series which Mr. Glover 

 has in preparation for his forthcoming work on the Insects of North America, and are 

 illustrative, in the diflFerent Orders, of many of the species in their various stages of 

 transformation ; accompanying them was also a series of plates illustrating the insects 

 destructive to the cotton plants, orange and lime trees, potato, &c., in America. Mr. . 

 Glover has been officially engaged for some 'years past in the study of the insects 

 injurious to vegetation in America, and the results of some of his labours have been 

 published in recent volumes of the American Patent Office (Agricultural) Reports. 



Mr. Janson also produced tweuty-four plates of the same series, illustrative of the 

 Coleoptera of North America. 



Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide, communicated another instalment of his " Notes 

 on the Buprestidae of South Australia." 



Prof. Westwood exhibited three new Longicorn beetles, for which he proposed the 

 names of Cantharocnemis Livingstonii (from Zambesi), Cantharoctenus Burchellii 

 (from Damara-land), and Canlharoplatys Felderi (from the White Nile). The two 

 latter were clearly allied to Cantharocnemis, but differed therefrom and from one 

 another; he therefore proposed for them different sub-generic names, but in so doing 

 had endeavoured, by the form of name selected, to show their subordination to or' 

 dependence upon the primary genus Caniharocnemis, 



The President was unable to see the advantage of giving distinct names to sub- 

 divisions which were admittedly not genera. In the present case, by what name was 

 the insect to be known ? Cantharocnemis Felderi ? or Cantharoplatys Felderi ? or 

 Cantharocnemis (Canlharoplatys) Felderi ? If by the first, why introduce the name 

 Cantharoplatys at all ? If by the second — then, either Cantharoplatys is in fact 

 treated as a genus whilst it is confessedly not of generic value, or the fundamental 

 rule of the binomial nomenclature, that an insect is known by the names of the genus 

 and species to which it belongs, is infringed. If by the third, the binomial nomen- 

 clature is abrogated, and a trinomial system introduced, without any advantage to 

 compensate for its greater cumbrousness and difficulty of retention in the memory. If 

 a newly-discovered form differed so much from previously-known forms as to be 

 incapable of admission into any established genus, it must of course be described as a 



