The Zoologist — Acgust, 1869. 1805 



Mr. Stainton also exhibited drawings of ibe larva and pupa-case of Gelecliia 

 atrella, and was now able to corroborate the observation of Mr. Jeffrey (see Proc. 

 Ent. Soc. 1866, p. xxv.) ihat this species is a Hypericum feeder. At the previous 

 meeting of the Society, Mr. De Grey had given Mr. Stainton some Hypericum stems 

 contain^ing larvs, which had since produced Gelechia atrella ; when full fed, the larva 

 cuts off the terminal portion of the stem, which appears to be slit up the side for the 

 purpose of flattening it, and by spinning together the edges it forms a flexible case, 

 within which it turns to the pupa. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a bee which he had found on the previous day at Southend, 

 in grass, so completely covered with larvae of Meloe that it was impossible to deter- 

 mine the species of the bee until the greater part of the parasites had been removed ; 

 he di*nol remember to have ever found larvae of Meloe so late in the season ; there 

 were forty or fifty of them on the bee when exhibited, when captured there must have 

 been 300 or 400 ; the bee proved to be Melecta armata, itself a parasite in the nests of 



Anthophora. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited living specimens of Physonota gigantea, a remarkably 

 beautiful species of Cassidida, which however loses all its colour within two or three 

 days after death, indeed some of them had faded and become dull during life ; they 

 were brought to Liverpool from Central America in a cargo of logwood, and were said 

 to have dropped out of the cracks of the wood. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a smooth corneous luminous larvse from Uruguay, which 

 he supposed to be a Pyrophorus. When placed in a dark room, the head appeared 

 bright red, and each side showed ten bright green spots ; the lateral spots were almost 

 always visible (in the dark), the red only occasionally, and sometimes would remain in- 

 visible for ten minutes together ; the colours were so intense that Mr. Smith compared 

 them to the red and green signal-lamps of a railway train. It was said by the sender 

 to be capable of living for two or three months without food, if placed in earth which 

 was kept damp and occasionally changed. 



Mr. Pascoe exhibited a beetle* brought by Mr. Du Boulay from West Australia, 

 which possessed a very peculiar formation of the elytra with remarkable elevations on 

 the hind part thereof, and which seemed intermediate between Hisler and Claviger. 



Prof. Westwood exhibited drawings of two new species of the Ectrephes of Pascoe 

 (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1866, p. xvi. = Anapestus of King, in Trans. Ent. Snc. N.S.W. 

 for the same year), which genus he now considered to be a strangely modified form of 

 Ptinidff ; and of some other forms (Polyplocotes, n. g., &c.) which connected Ectre- 

 phes and Plinus. Also, a new Articerus, a new Paussus, &c. 



The Secretary read a letter from the Secretary of the Flax Improvement Associ- 

 ation of Belfast, respecting the damage done by a small beetle to the flax crop, 

 especially whilst the plant was in the seed-leaf. The species was determined by Mr. 

 Janson to be the Thyamis parvula of PaykuU. 



Papers read. 



The following papers were read : — 



"Notes on Eastern Butlerfles" (continuation, Eurytelidae and Libytheidae) ; by 



Mr. Alfred R. Wallace. 



* The Chlannjdopsis slriatella of Westwood, Tr. Ent. Soc. 1869, p. 318. 



