The Zoologist — April, 1869. 1647 



Dr. Wallace also exhibited a motli whicli, on the 18th of January, 1869, he 

 observed on ihe window of his room ; but, under the impression that it was a small 

 female of the common Emperor moth, left it undisturbed. On the 19th he noticed 

 that the antennae were pectinate, and thinking it still to be a female Saturnia Carpini 

 with the anlennffi of a male, he killed it and set it out. Closer examination showed 

 that it was not an Emperor moth at all, and he at length bethought him of a parcel 

 of cocoons, which he had received in 1867 from Dr. Hooker, of a Chinese Borabyx 

 which was said to yield the " gut" of fishermen. (See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1867, p. civ.). 

 On looking at the cocoons, none of which were productive during 1868, it was found 

 one of them had hatched, and there was unmistakable evidence of the receut 

 emergence of a moth from the pupa: he had no doubt the moth exhibited was the 

 produce of that pupa. Mr. F. Moure recognized the species as Saturnia Pyretorum 

 (Westw. Cab. Orient. Ent. p. 49, pi. 24, fig. 2). 



Dr. Wallace mentioned that he had availed himself of the sample or pattern post 

 for the transmission of boxes of silk-worms or their eggs: so long as there was an 

 aperture at each end of the box, which apertures might be covered with perforated 

 zinc or other material, but left it ascertainable that there was no letter enclosed, no 

 objection was raised by the Post-Office authorities; and he had lately sent a box by 

 post to Japan for eggs at a cost of 4s., which when it last came thence as a parcel had 

 cost 474-. Mr. Borne added that bird-skins were now frequently sent from India by 

 sample post. 



Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited three male specimens of Dilar Hornei (Ent. Mo. Mag. 

 V. 239), a new species from India of a genus remarkable amongst the Neuroptera 

 for the possession of pectinate autennaB. 



Mr. Home, by whom the species was brought to this country, said the insect was 

 not uncommon iu North-West India, on the hill sides, amongst grass in damp places, 

 hut not near water: the female had a long yellow-brown ovipositor shaped like a 

 scimitar, which, so far from looking flexible, had the appearance of being very stifl". 



Mr. Home exhibited sheets of the inner portion of the bark of Pinus longifolia, 

 which he had found useful in India as a substitute for cork: it was tolerably soft, and 

 the resin was not injurious to insects. 



Prof. Westwood mentioned that in the previous month he had seen exhibited at 

 Oxford a full-grown larva of Lampyris noctiluca, which was distinctly luminous. 



Mr. J. J. Weir exhibited a mass of larvae of Tipula from Blackbeath, where acres 

 of land were so infested that there seemed to be more larvae than earth. In Greenwich 

 Park the grass was, at this early period, almost destroyed by them. Rooks, starlings 

 and sparrows appeared to be busy in the neighbourhood, but no diminution iu the 

 number of the grubs was observable. 



Mr. Bond mentioned that he had once known four hundred of these larvse taken 

 out of the crop of a pheasant. 



Papers read. 



Mr. Charles 0. Waterhouse read a paper " On a new Genus and some new Species 

 of Coleoptera belonging to the Family Lucanidae." 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir read a paper "On Insects and Insectivorous Birds, and 

 particularly on the Eelation between the Colour and the Edibility of the Larvae of 

 Lepidoptera." 



