2448 The Zoologist— January, J 871. 



"lu Kirby and Speuce (Intvod. i. pp. 190, 199, eil. 1843) it is mentioned 

 that Anolium paniceiun has been known to consume Cayenne pepper. On 

 the 5th April, 1847, Mr. W. W. Saunders exhibited to this Society a bottle 

 of capsicum from Bombay, which was greatly infested by Lasioderma 

 testaceum ; and it is added that when Kirby and Speuce stated Cayenne 

 pepper to be subject to the ravages of Anobium paniceum, that species 

 was probably mistaken by them for the former insect, which it greatly 

 resembles." (See Proc. Eut. Soc. 184 7, p. viii.j. It is clear that this passage 

 3neans the reverse of what is said— that Lasioderma was mistaken for 

 Anobium, not Anobium for Lasioderma. The authority for Kirby and 

 Speuce's statement is Mr. Iladdon, who on the 1st January, 1838, exhibited 

 to this Society "a quantity of Cayenne pepper, in which a number of 

 specimens of Anobium paniceum had been reared." (See Proceedings, p. Ixi.) 

 I have now the pleasure of exhibiting larvte and beetles in Cayenne pepper, 

 forwarded to me in August from Woolston, near Southampton ; they were 

 described as " sent over in some Cayenne pepper, and, much to the disgust 

 of the village grocer, they bred and multiplied, the beetles boring holes in 

 the drawer in wliich the pepper was placed, previous to the discovery of the 

 inmates." Notwithstanding the doubt expressed in 1847, I venture, in 

 corroboration of Mr. Puiddon's observation, to exhibit these beetles as 

 Anobium paniceum." 



Mr. Bond exliibited specimens of a small Dipterous insect, Chlorops 

 lineata, and read a letter respecting it from Mr. J. Brown, of Cambridge. 

 In the month of September, a room in the Provost's Lodge at King's College 

 was found '■ literally swarming with them ; the ceiling and windows were 

 covered ; there must have been millions of them ; " they were said to occur 

 regularly every season, and to have been noticed by the late Provost, 

 Dr. Thackeray (who died in 1850). 



Mr. F. Smith mentioned that he had received half a dozen communica- 

 tions during the autumn respecting swarms of this insect. Mr. Stainton 

 enquired how and why it was that an insect which feeds in grasses or on 

 vegetable substances is found in houses? Prof. Westwood thought the long 

 hot summer and dry autumn might account for the unusual prevalence of 

 this species during the present year; as to its getting into houses, he 

 thought it was with a view to hybernation. Mr. Jenncr Weir thought it 

 was only for temporary shelter, on the fu'st approach of cold weather. 



Mr. Albert MiiUer exhibited some reuiform spangles on the under side 

 of oak-leaves, found near Shirley, on the 10th October last, and produced 

 by Cynips reuum (Hartig, M.S.); also pea-galls (about seventy-five in 

 number) of Cynips agaraa, on the under side of the leaves of an oak 

 seedling of two or three years' growth. Mv. MiiUer observed upon the fact 

 of a Cynips attacking so young and healthy a plant. 



