232 The Zoologist— May, 1866. 



hair-like pedicel about a quarter of an inch above the level of the bail ; but the 

 peculiarity of ibe arrangemeui was that the first, third, fifih, and so on, were disposed 

 with their longer axes all in the same direction, and rested on pedicels which wer« 

 perpendicular to the plane of the bark, whilst the alternate eggs were transversely 

 placed, with their shorter axes in the same line with the longer axes of the odd 

 numbers, and were supported by longer pedicels which were inclined at about half a 

 right angle to the plane of the bark: the object of such an arrangement was dilEcuIt 

 to imagine, whilst it must necessarily render the process of egg-laying a very complex 

 operation. Secondly, a larva, probably of a Lamellicorn beetle, with two fungoid 

 excrescences, Sphreris, springing from the back of the head, one on each side, like 

 ram's horns. [See Proc. Ent. Soc. 18.34, p. xviii. ; 1836, pp. vi., xxiii. ; 1838, p. iv.; 

 18.39, p. xxxiv.; 1841, p. xxii. ; 1842, p. Ixvii. ; 1852, p. xxi.; 1854, p. xvi.; 1857, 

 p. xcvii.; 1863, p. clxxii.; 1864, p. xliv. ; 1865, p. Ixxxix.; for other instances 

 of fungoid growths on insects]. And thirdly, four Locustideous larvae, about half 

 an inch long, attached to a small branch of a tree; one of them was tightly held 

 bead downwards by the other three, which were themselves so locked in a close 

 embrace and bad their legs so intricately entangled, that it seemed they had been 

 linalde to release themselves, and thus had died. 



Mr. F. Smith said that, ia Stephens' 'Catalogue of British Insects,' the genus 

 Bembex was included on the autbority of Donovan, who had figured B. octopunctata 

 as British, but without assigning anj- precise locality. In the ' Entomologist's 

 Annual' for 1866, p. 122, he (.Mr. Smith) bad expressed a hope that this, amongst other 

 genera now expunged from our list, might be re-discovered: he had the pleasure of 

 exhibiiing a specimen of Bembex olivacea (which name was a synonym of, but had 

 priority over, B. octopunctata) placeil in his hands by a gentleman at Bristol, to whom 

 it was given many years ago by a Dr. Hicks, who said that be had himself captured 

 the insect near Gloucester. 



Mr. J. J. Weir exhibited some larjirs which he believed to be only the commoQ 

 meal-worm (Tencbrio), but which were found in a wine-cellar, and had done con- 

 siderable damage by eating through the corks of port wine, so that the wine escaped: 

 sealing-wax on the head of the cork did not operate as a preventive. Oddly enough, 

 though ihey had attacked the corks of sherry also, ibey had not completely perforated 

 them, but stopped short of the wine. It was suggested as a probable cause fur tbe 

 incursion into the cellar that perhaps bran had been used in packing tbe wine, in lieu ■ 

 of saw-dust. 



Mr. W. W. Saunders said that numerous instances of injury done to corks by 

 various insects had been brought before tbe Society. [See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1835, 

 p. Iv.; 1837, p. Ix.; 1848, pp. xxxv., Jtii.; 1849, p. Ixi.; 1851, p. cxiv. ; 1852, pp. 

 viii., xvii., xxiii.] He remembered a case in which a number of larvae of Oermestes 

 lardarius, which had been brought into the docks with a cargo of skins, made an 

 incursion into a neighbouring warehouse in which were stored some manufactured 

 corks; these they perforated and rendered useless: large damages were claimed 

 against the Dock Company, and a law-suit seemed imminent, but the matter was 

 finally compromised. — /. W. D. 



