The Zoologist— December, 1871. 2875 



Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited the remarkable wingless Californian Bittacus, 

 recently described and figured by him in the 'Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine,' vol. viii. pp. 100—10:2, as Bittacus apterus. 



Mr. Albert Miiller exhibited a gigantic American oak-gall, given to him 

 by Mr. C. V. Eiley, of St. Louis, Missouri. Also the impregnated and un- 

 impregnated eggs of Libellula flaveola, Linne, the former being whitish in 

 colour and deposited singly, the latter excluded by a captured female in a 

 gelatinous yellowish mass. 



Prof. Westwood exhibited numerous examples of the true Formica her- 

 culeana, Linne, an ant not hitherto considered as British, and stated the 

 circumstances under which they were found, as follows : — It appeared that 

 very recently a labouring man had brought to a colleague of his, at Oxford, 

 several birds which he said he had shot in Wytham Wood, on the Earl of 

 Abingdon's estate, and these were purchased for the insignificant sum of 

 two shiUings. One of these birds was a great black woodpecker [Picus 

 martius), which had been considered a very doubtful British species. Upon 

 dissection the proventriculus of this bird was found to be crammed with the 

 ant in question, the specimens being in perfect condition and with the 

 wings entire, and none had passed into the gizzard. Taking all these facts 

 into consideration, with the freshness of the bird itself, Prof. Westwood 

 could come to no other conclusion than that the man's account of how he 

 became possessed of the bird was true, and hence that the ant was a British 

 species. 



Mr. MiiUer stated that he had frequently found this ant in Switzerland, 

 in winter, in pine-stumps a foot or two in height ; and Mr. Smith made 

 some remarks on Nylauder's account of its habits. 



Mr. Jenner Weir utterly disbelieved in Picus martius having ever occurred 

 in Britain in a wild state, an opinion shared by several others of the 

 Members present. 



Prof. Westwood further exhibited two males of Papilio Crino from Ceylon. 

 In one of these the first and second branches of the median vein were 

 coated with brown hairs, a peculiarity which was the rule in some species of 

 Papilio, but which had not been hitherto observed in P. Crino. The other 

 example had these veins naked, as is usual in the species. He was not able 

 to ascertain if both specimens were from exactly the same locality. 



The Secretary of the Haggerston Entomological Society invited the 

 Members to attend their annual exhibition of insects on the 23rd and 24th 

 of November. 



Papers read, dc. 

 Baron Chaudoir communicated the following notes on the specific value 

 of Eurygnathus parallelus, Chaudoir : — 



" In the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 1871, 

 p. ai5, Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston contests the right of the insect I described 



