4508 Tue ZooLocist—J unE, 1875. 
Mr. Sealy also called attention to a peculiarity in the formation of the 
hind wings of the male, specimens of which he exhibited, there being a large 
pouch on the anal margin, filled with fluffy hair. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan read a letter he had received from an Englishman residing 
in Pueblo, Colorado, U.S., stating that he had grown potatoes in various 
parts of the Union, and that he was satisfied it was not necessary for the 
potato beetle to have pieces of haulm to support him whilst crossing the 
Atlantic, as he had found the insect in his potato pits, eating the tubers 
greedily; and that unless the English authorities took some steps to 
prevent the importation of potato bulbs, he believed the beetle would soon 
be in this country. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan drew attention to the following remark by Lieut. W. L. 
Carpenter, in his Report of the Zoological Collections made in Colorado 
during the summer of 1873 (extracted from the Annual Report of the 
U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey) with reference to the Colorado 
potato beetle :— 
“ This insect is still marching eastward, not a single specimen having 
been seen west of the dividing-ridge. It is probable that, should the potato 
be cultivated on the western water-shed, it would be free from the ravages 
of this destructive insect for a number of years; but that it would ultimately 
make its appearance in that region through the agency of the seed. This 
I believe to be the manner of their introduction to distant localities, as they 
are sluggish travellers, and quite incapable of spreading so rapidly by their 
own instinct. This belief is further sustained by their continued absence 
from the Salt Lake basin, occasioned by the cheapness of vegetables in the 
Mormon settlements excluding the importation of potatoes from Colorado, 
Not found at a greater altitude than 8000 feet.” 
Mr. Bates believed the distribution of the beetle depended more upon 
climatic conditions. The native home of the insect was the eastern 
plateaus of the Rocky Mountains, as far south as Mexico, and the climate 
of the West Coast of America being much more like the West Coast of 
Europe, their Faunas also bore a greater resemblance. He believed the 
absence of the insect from the west of the Rocky Mountains to depend upon 
the difference of climate, and the same cause might be expected to prevent 
the establishment of the insect in countries where the moisture of the 
atmosphere would probably be fatal to it. 
Mr. Stevens remarked that on different occasions he had received the 
insect in great numbers in bottles from Orizaba. 
Paper read. 
Mr. Edward Saunders communicated the first part of a “ Synopsis of 
British Hemiptera (Heteroptera)."—F’. G. 
ee 
