431. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
EntomonocicaL Society oF Lonpon. 
August 6, 1879.—J. W. Dunnina, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., Vice-President, 
in the chair. 
Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the 
respective donors. 
Mr. Phillips exhibited living specimens of both sexes of Spercheus 
emarginatus, taken at West Ham. 
Mr. Stainton exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Grigg, of Bristol; larve of 
Réslerstammia Eralebella, a genus of which the larve had hitherto been un- 
known. These were obtained from lime trees near Bristol, feeding externally 
on the leaves, quite exposed. They were very transparent, showing the 
whole of the interior of the larvee, and with the segments deeply incised. 
When full-fed they turned down the edge of the leaf and spun the cocoon 
within the fold thus made, just like the larvee of the genus Orniz. 
Miss Ormerod read a paper entitled ‘‘Sugar-cane Borers of British 
Guiana,” and exhibited specimens of the insects referred to in different 
stages of development. The first—a moth stated to be a Proceras (sp. ?)— 
was the most destructive, and the other insects were Coleopterous belonging 
to the genus Calandra—C. sacchari and C. palmarum. Miss Ormerod 
made the exhibition on behalf of the Colonial Company, who were anxious 
to receive any information as to available and practical methods of dealing 
with these attacks. 
Mr. W. L. Distant stated that these insects had long been recorded as 
destructive to the sugar-cane in the West Indies, and that the circumstances 
were almost the same on the plantations in the Straits Settlements at 
Malacca, where the usual remedy, and possibly the only one, was searching 
for and burning the infested canes, thus gradually diminishing, and possibly 
eventually to a great extent extirpating, these destructive insects. 
Mr. Swinton contributed the following note :— 
“At page xii. of the ‘Proceedings of the Entomological Society of 
London’ for 1877, contained in the third issue for that year, I find the 
following observations recorded :—‘ Mr. Meldola stated that... . the larva 
of Liparis auriflua, which feeds upon hawthorn, sloe, apple, oak, &c., and 
which possesses the well-known property of ‘‘ urticating,” could be adduced 
as an example of a larva feeding on non-poisonous plants, and yet elaborating 
poisons by chemico-physiological processes.’ Mr. M‘Iachlan remarked that 
the received opinion, on the other hand, was that ‘the urticating property 
was due to mechanical irritation, the numerous brittle hairs of the larva 
