1728 The Zoologist— June, 1869. 



rejected by birds. The IchneumonidaB appeared lo eujoy immunity from the attacks of 

 birds, which Mr. Home attributed chiefly to an acrid smell which most of them 

 emitted. He had seen Dyliscidae taken by birds, and dropped from inability to eat 

 them. lulidae were totally rejected by all animals and birds. 



Mr. Home also mentioned that he had once linovvu a large spider (or rather 

 a Galeodes) killed by the sling of a wasp upon which he was feeding ; the Galeodes 

 finished his meal, but sickened and died shortly after. He inquired whether it vi&s 

 from fear, or for the purpose of annoyance, that humble-bees eject fluid when disturbed ; 

 and mentioned a similar occurrence which he observed in a hornet at Benares : the 

 hornet was on a window, and, on being touched with a pencil, ejected a clear fluid 

 along the glass, in several lines of from one inch to two inches in length. Mr. Home 

 also exhibited a sketch from nature of a moth and a hunting spider : the moth was at 

 rest on a small bamboo in a summer-house, and the spider was quietly feeding upon 

 the moth; the question was, how did the spider catch and hold the moth, without 

 any disturbance of the latter? The moth must have been alive when the spider 

 seized him, for the spider would not have cared to suck a dead body. 



Mr. M'Lacblan had seen a Phalangium which had captured, and held in captivity, 

 u Plusia Gamma uuder similar circumstances. 



Mr. JI'Lachlan exhibited a white ant which had been brought in all its stages by 

 Mr. Melliss from St. Helena. (See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1863, p. 185 ; 1866, p. xii.) The 

 insect was said to have been introduced into the island from the coast of Africa, but it 

 was not referable to any described African species; it had rather the appearance of a 

 West Indian or Brazilian species, and resembled the Termes tenuis of Dr. Hagen. 



Mr. M'liachlun also exhibited a number of black Podurae, probably the same 

 species as that exhibited by Mr. G. S. Saunders (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1867, p. Ixxxv), the 

 Anura tuberculata of Templeton : the so-called " blight" fell over a duck-pond and 

 farm-yard near Hungerford on the 10th April, and looked just as if a sack of soot had 

 beeu emptied out; it floated for some time on the pond, but soon disappeared from 

 the farm-yard. Mr. M'Lachlan added that he had only that morning found a number 

 of small white Poduras in his own house at Lewisham : some flowers were in a room, 

 one of the flower-pots had been removed, leaving a saucer coutaiuing water, on the 

 top of which the spring-tails were floating; but on returning two or three houi^ later 

 they were all drowned. 



Prof. Westwood suggested that they must have piissed from the flower-pot into the 

 water before the removal of the former; and Mr. Jenuer Weir said that during the 

 present spring be had observed them on several occasions uuder flower-pots. 



Paper* read. 



The following papers were read : — 



" Notes on Eastern Butterflies," (Continuation, on the genus Diadema) ; by Mr. 

 Alfred R. Wallace. 



" Descriptions of new or little-known Forms of Diurnal Lepidoptera ;" by Mr. 

 A. G. Butler. 



New Part of' Transactions.' 



The first part of the "Transactions for IS69" (published in April) was on the 

 tMe.-J. W. D. 



