4584 THE ZooLocist—Avecust, 1875. 
Mr. Champion exhibited a series of recently captured individuals of 
Chrysomela cerealis from Snowdon, its only known British locality. Mr. 
M‘Lachlan stated that he had recently seen this species in the Department 
of the Saone et Loire, in France, in great numbers, each ear of wheat 
having several of the beetles upon it, and remarked on the singular nature 
of its sole habitat in Britain. 
The Secretary exhibited nests of a trap-door spider containing living 
inmates, sent from Uitenhage, near Port Elizabeth, by Mr. Henry W. Bid- 
well, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Cape of Good Hope. 
The nests were not (as is usual) in the earth, but in cavities in the bark of 
trees, and the “ trap-door” appeared to be formed of a portion of the bark, 
thus rendering it most difficult to detect the nests when in a closed condition. 
The Secretary was also informed that similar nests were constructed in 
door-posts and other places. 
Mr. Riley, State Entomologist of Missouri, exhibited sundry of the insect 
pests that do so much damage in the State, including the army worm 
(Leucania unipuncta) and the Rocky Mountain locust (Caloptenus spretus), 
and entered at some length into the habits of the latter insect, and the vast 
amount of destitution caused by it, stating that in a short period it devoured 
almost every living plant, leaving nothing but the leaves of the forest trees, 
and converting a fruitful country into an absolute desert. From a know- 
ledge of the habits of the insect, and believing in its inability to exist in a 
moist climate, he had predicted that its ravages would not extend beyond a 
certain line, and he had seen these predictions fulfilled almost to the letter. 
Having noticed that hogs and poultry grew excessively fat from devouring 
the locusts, and considering that the use of them as food for man would 
tend to relieve some of the distress occasioned in the devastated districts, 
he had, shortly before leaving St. Louis, organized a banquet, at which 
locusts, prepared in several ways (especially in the form of soup), were 
served up, and they were pronounced to be excellent. He distributed a 
number of baked locusts among the members present, but did not 
recommend them for food in that state, as the chitinous external tegu- 
ment and the spines required to be removed before they were fit fay 
digestion. 
Mr. Riley also stated that he was very desirous of taking a supply of the 
cocoons of Microgaster glomeratus to America, to lessen the ravages of the 
larvee of the genus Pieris on that continent, and he would be greatly 
obliged to any entomologist who could assist him in obtaining them. 
Papers read, dc. 
The following papers were communicated :— 
“ Descriptions of new Heteromerous Coleoptera belonging to the Family 
Blapside.” By Professor J. O. Westwood, M.A., &e. 
