The Zoologist— April, 1874. 3961 



Mr. Higgins -was of opinion that unless the male of Pliredimus Jagori 

 differed from the male of P. Cumingi, then the so-called female was only a 

 var. of P. Cumingi. He also thought that thirty-five or thirty-six out of 

 the forty-two species would in all probability stand good, but that the others 

 would prove to be simply varieties of previously known species. He con- 

 sidered the figures in Mohnike's ' Cetoniden der Philippinischen Inseln ' 

 were so bad as to be unrecognisable, they being wrong in colour and 

 markings. 



Mr. Higgins also exhibited specimens of Diaphonia Digglesii, 0. Janson, 

 and Schizorrhina palmata, Schaum, fi-om Australia. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited (1) a hermaphrodite ant, Myrmica Isevinodis, 

 captured by Mr. J. Chappel, at Dunham Park, Cheshire: this insect is 

 figured and described in the 'Entomologist's Annual for 1874 ; ' it combines 

 characters of male, female and worker. (2) Specimens of Coluocera Att£e, 

 Kraatz, described in ' Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 1858,' found 

 by Mr. J. Traherne Moggridge, at Mentone, in the seed-magazines of 

 Aphsenogaster (Atta) structor. With reference to the latter Mr. Moggridge 

 writes as follows : — 



" I have lately been exploring a very large and far-spreading nest of Atta 

 structor, and I find in the abundantly-filled granaries great numbers of the 

 small beetle which I enclose. Platyarthrus is also very common in the 

 nests. I have never observed this beetle elsewhere, and I do not think it 

 would have escaped me if it had been at all abundant in the nests of Atta 

 barbara. I have opened but few nests of A. structor, owing to their being 

 usually placed either in terrace-walls or in garden-ground. I spend a great 

 deal of my time now in digging for seeds in ants' nests, as I want these 

 seeds for the experiments I am making in the hope of learning the secret 

 method by which the ants render their seeds dormant at wiU in damp soil. 

 I am much struck by the frequent occurrence of the nests of trap-door 

 spiders in the very soil of the ants' nests, the spider's tubes often running 

 quite close to, and in the midst of, the galleries of the ants. Ants certainly 

 form a large part of the food of trap-door spiders, and this helps me to 

 understand how it comes that the spiders can get a living without leaving 

 their nests. The spider sits watching at the mouth of her tube, with the 

 door raised very slightly, and then snatches in any insect that may chance 

 to pass within reach." 



The Secretary read some remarks taken from the ' Times ' and ' Gar- 

 dener's Magazine' on the rapid progress of the Colorado potato beetle 

 [Doryphora decemlineata) through the United States and Canada, and the 

 remedy of Paris green, which Avas stated to have been used with success 

 by the farmers in Canada. The fifteen-spotted ladybird was mentioned as 

 a powerful enemy to the potato-beetle, devouring it in the larva-state. The 

 writer in the 'Times' suggested the encouragement of small birds as the 



