4044 The Zoologist — June, 1874. 



diameter. One of the tallest of these branches, which reached to a height 

 of about eight feet, was apparently broken and lying on the other branches 

 as if it was cut or broken off in a mischievous way. I was on the point of 

 questioning the gardener about it, when I observed the leaves of another 

 branch quite withered, and, on taking hold of it to bend it towards me, it 

 snapped in a curiously brittle manner. Looking at where it was broken, 

 I found the stem to be completely severed with a clean division, and that it 

 was only kept together by the thin outer layer of the bark. Examining 

 another branch, I found it snapped in an equally mysterious way, but in 

 doing so a small black insect fell out of the broken part ; it was too rapid 

 in its movements, and I lost it. On further examination of the broken 

 parts, and putting them into position again, I found a small circular 

 opening, about the size of the hole in the gall-nut, and concluded that the 

 insect I saw had eaten its way into the stem, and by devouring the wood 

 completely round, and not along its long axis, accounted for the fracture in 

 this particular locality. Since then I have been on the watch to discover the 

 insect, and have succeeded in securing two specimens ; one was found in the 

 stem on breaking it across in the position of one of the external apertures : 

 this specimen is somewhat injured by the loss of one of its elytra. The 

 other specimen I found had buried itself so far into the stem as just to 

 leave its posterior part exposed. They are both beetles, about a quarter of 

 an inch in length, black in colour, and have a large head of peculiar 

 shape, well adapted, no doubt, to contain powerful muscles and mandibles 

 for tearing the tough woody fibre of the stem of the plant ; but I leave their 

 description to the entomologists. The ofiice these creatures are no doubt 

 intended to fulfil in Nature's economy is to assist in keeping the tropical 

 vegetation in check. They burrow into the stem of the tree, are rewarded 

 by the sap and nourishment it affords, and are liberated, after performing 

 this task, by a gust of wind snapping the undermined and weakened stem 

 across. They are not found in other trees or shrubs than the one alluded 

 to. The beetle turns on his side while boring, his back being towards the 

 bark ; in this manner his form suits the circumference of the stem." 



Mr. M'Lachlan referred to a specimen of a Hy (one of the Syrphida;), 

 which he had exhibited at the meeting of 7th July, 1873, as a strongly- 

 marked instance of gynandromorphism, the sexual organs on the under side 

 of the abdomen being placed on one side instead of the middle. He had since 

 been informed by Mr. Verrall that this was an error, and that the apparent 

 want of symmetry in those organs was usual in the species. Mr. Verrall, 

 •who was present, stated that the insect was a male specimen of Chrysotoxum 



festivum. 



New Paris of ' Tt-ansactions.' 



Part II. of the ' Transactions' for 1874 was on the table. — F. G. 



