76 



Ruckeii, $ and 9^ "uhhtous species of CicindeliB and Lucanida?, Lamia Stanlei»i 

 and Buj)iestis Edwaidsii. 



Ml'. Stevens exhibited tluee perl'ect siiecinieus of the rare beetle Cheirotonus 

 Macleayii, from India. 



Galls produced hy Cijnips Quercus-petioli. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited a bunch of {jails gathered from an oak near Exeter, and of 

 the same kind as those exhibited by Mr. Ilicli at the November meeting. He also read 

 the following extract from a letter of the correspondent who had forwarded the galls : — 



" Having observed, in the ' Gardener's Chronicle,' a notice of the Proceedings of 

 the Entomological Society, in which the subject of the oak-galls of this county was 

 spoken of, I beg to say that they are more numerous now than at any other time I 

 have observed them. They are confined to the young and mostly the long shoots 

 which spring from oaks which have been cut down to the ground, and to those old 

 stumps which grow in hedges, and are subject to be cut down in repairing the hedges, 

 perhaps once in three or four years, or it may be more. It is curious to observe tliat, 

 should an oak tree stand in a hedge, it is only the lower spray which is selected by the 

 insects: it is exceedingly rare to see a gall upon the higher branches of a tree. It 

 may be taken as a rule that the insects never attack a tree or bush above ten feet from 

 the ground, but the nearer the ground the more ruimerous the galls. Some dwarf oak 

 pollards I saw the other day, near Stoke Wood, which had been completely denuded 

 of their branches last winter, and of course last spring the trees produced a goodly 

 crop of young shoots all round: to see these trees now without any leaves, and the 

 young one-year old branches almost covered with galls like a gooseberry bush laden 

 with fruit, is very curious and striking. 



" It is rather difficult now to find any galls containing insects, for it appears that a 

 portion of the insects make their escape in the autumn and the rest in the spring fol- 

 lowing ; but the little prying tits {Parus cceruleus) appear to have found them out, and 

 thousands are devoured by these birds : it is astonishing how soon they work a hole 

 and extract the larva, which no doubt is a very dainty morsel, particularly this hard, 

 frosty weather. 



" As for the species of Cynips which causes these galls, if it is C. Quercus-petioli 

 certainly that name was wrongly applied, for the galls on the petioles of the leaves of 

 oak never attain that woody consistence which is peculiar to this kind of gall. I sent, 

 some of these galls, three or four years ago, to Mr. Westvvood, through the ' Cottage 

 Gardener,' asking for the name, and received for answer that it was Cynips ter- 

 minalis." 



Mr. Stainton pointed out that the galls now ])efore the meeting were well figured 

 by Reaumur,* and that no subsequent author appeared to have referred to his figures. 



Indian Method of preparing the Silk of Bomhyx Cynthia. 

 Mr. Westwood read, from the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi., 



* ' Memoires ' tome iii. 452, pi. 41, figs. 7 — 15. 



