392 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



extending from the hind part of the dorsal region of the insect ; the latter 

 is thus completely concealed by these fibres, so that no one would suspect 

 there was an insect beneath them. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited drawings of a new species (and probably 

 genus) of Mymaridm, which had been bred by Mr. J. M. Gooch from the 

 coccus affecting St. Michael oranges, and which appeared to be near the 

 genus Lbnacis, Forst., but had some of the characters of the Tetrastichid(B ; 

 also an extensive series of drawings of the saws of sawflies drawn by Mr. 

 Gooch under the camera from fresh specimens. 



Mr. T. R. Billups exhibited specimens of Tr'ichopteryx brevicornis, Mots., 

 a species hitherto only found in Madeira, which were shaken out of a stack 

 of radish seed at Canning Town, West Ham, in November, 1883. 



Mr. Billups also exhibited specimens (some- living) of PelopcBUs archi- 

 tectus, St. Farg., and its nest, which was found attached to a leaf of tobacco 

 from Owensboro, Kentucky, and taken from a hogshead weighing over 

 12 cwt. recently opened at Whitechapel. Mr. Kirby remarked that he had 

 seen a similar nest to the one now exhibited attached to a pod of maize. 



Mr. A. Sidney Olliff exhibited a small coleopterous larva, evidently one 

 of the StaphylinidcB, and possibly that of a species of Philonthus or Quedius, 

 which was found by the Rev. Robert Dunn, of Cricklade, engaged in a 

 vigorous encounter with a large earthworm. The specimen was the one to 

 which Mr. W. E. Darwin called attention in a letter published in a recent 

 number of ' Nature ' (vol. xxx., p. 146). Mr. Billups thought this no un- 

 common occurrence, as he had frequently witnessed encounters between the 

 larva of Ocypus oleiis and earthworms, and hud kept Carabus auratus alive on 

 nothing but earthworms for more than five months. Dr. Sharp remarked 

 that Cybister Raseli had been kept alive five to seven years by being fed on 

 earthworms once or twice a day ; he thought that the larva exhibited was 

 carabideous, and that earthworms were the favourite food of carnivorous 

 coleoptera. M r. Waterhouse remarked that he had fed the larva of a Tele- 

 phorus on earthworms with much success. Mr. W. Cole thought it very 

 probable that the later stages of many entozoa which were known to exist 

 in earthworms, and had been sought for in vain in birds, would very probably 

 be found in coleopterous insects. 



Mr. H. T. Stainton communicated a newspaper cutting taken from the 

 •Dundee Advertiser' of June 27th, 1884, in which it was recorded from 

 Dunning, near Perth, that the gooseberry sawfly (Nematus rihesii) larva was 

 making sad havoc with the black currant bushes; he had never known this 

 larva to attack the black currants of his own experience. Mr. Waterhouse 

 and Mr. Fitch thought it extremely improbable that the larva of N. rihesii 

 would eat the black currant. 



Mr. J. B. Bridgmau contributed " Further Additions to Mr. Marshall's 

 Catalogue of British Ichneumouidse."— E. A. Fitch, Hon. Secretary. 



Z-f). 



