96 



" They are found made up on the sunny side of stones or on the bark of birch trees ; 

 but the perfect insect selects the side of the stone or tree away from the siin." 



The President exhibited the insects presented by Mr. Spence, and read the 

 following extract of Mr. Thwaites' letter addressed to that gentleman : — 



" One of the bottles contains the larrae and images of a Carabideous beetle which 

 infests the nests of a little black ant, a few of which are in the bottle. The other 

 little bottle contains a lot of tiny species of insects of all kinds, amongst which is the 

 pupa of a little Papilio, sent me by a neighbour as ' a most wonderful natural produc- 

 tion,' and which, viewed through a lens, has a most extraordinary resemblance to a 

 monkey's head." 



The President also read the following note, addressed to him by Mons. Charles 

 Delarouzee, of Paris: — 



" In removing an old butt, which had served many years to hold water, to water the 

 garden, it occurred to me that some insects might be found under it ; and absolutely, 

 by examining the earth carefully to the depth o£ three feet, and in the decayed wood 

 of the butt, I took an individual of Euplectiis sulcicoUis, Redt., and many examples 

 of Anommatus 12-striatus and Langelandia anophthalma. I suppose that the Anom- 

 matus is a parasite of the Langelandia: probably, by searching in similar places, 



you might ascertain the fact." 



« 



The President observed that the insect described by Stephens as an Anommatus 

 was the Aglenus brunneus of Gyllenlial and Erichson. He believed that the Anom- 

 matus had not yet been discovered in England. 



Oh Saturnia (Hyalophora) cecropia. 



Under this title the following note, by W. S. M. D'Urban, Esq., of Newport, near 

 Exeter, was read, and the cocoons alluded to exhibited : — 



" Having seen in the reports of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 

 during the last twelve months, many notices relating to the silk of Bombyx Cynthia, 

 and that several persons have discovered means whereby the glutinous substance 

 which fastens the threads together may be dissolved and the silk unwound, I am 

 inclined to think that several other Bombyces meet with undeserved neglect, and 

 especially the subject of these notes, which appears to be well adapted for introduc- 

 tion into England, since it is a native of a climate subject to severe alternations of 

 temperature; and the larva feeding only in July and August, it would not be at all 

 affected by the cold of this island, as most of the other foreign species of Bombycidae 

 are. If we add to this that it produces an immense quantity of a very strong 

 material, and that its food-plants flourish well in England, we have all the requisites 

 to constitute a valuable silk-producing insect. During my residence in Canada 

 I had several opportunities of observing its transformations; but I regret I did not 

 determine accuraleh/, from my own observation, its food, as only one of its splendid 

 larva, and that a full-fed one, came into my possession: this larva %as picked up 

 crawling across a road at Sorel, Lower Canada, on the 19th of August, 1849, and was 

 confined in a small basket covered with gauze: after many fruitless attempts to effect 

 its escape it finally settled itself in the middle of the handle of the basket, and there 



