67 



Mr. Stainton exhibited a specimen of a Nocliia new to the British Fauna, Toxo- 

 campa Craccse, W. V., a species stated by Guenee to feed on Vicia multiflora, and to 

 be common in Austria, Germany and France, in July and August. The specimen 

 exhibited had been taken, along with two or three others of the same species, by the 

 Rev. E. Horton, on the north coast of Devonshire. 



Dr. Knaggs exhibited a box of insects collected by Mr. James A. Carrighan, at 

 Ararat, Victoria. 



The President exhibited a case containing a fine collection of insect architecture, 

 consisting of nests of bees, wasps and fossorial Hymenoptera. Amongst the more 

 remarkable was a nest of a species of Larra, which closely resembled a piece of sponge, 

 but which was no doubt composed of the scrapings of the stems and leaves of woolly 

 plants. This nest was attached to the under side of a leaf, though the species of the 

 genus to which the constructor of the nest belonged were usually burrowers in sandy 

 banks, &cc. Nests of a species of Pelopseus, composed of the dung of animals and 

 attached to reeds, were also remarkable. The Pelopsei were the mud-daubers of North 

 America, but the nest exhibited was from Port Natal. Many specimens of exquisite 

 structure from Brazil were also exhibited, particularly the nests built by the wasps 

 comprised in the genus Polybia. Altogether the case contained upwards of a hundred 

 specimens of the architecture of insects. 



The President also exhibited a Coleopterous insect which he characterized as not 

 only a species new to Britain, but as belonging io a genus hitherto not represented in 

 the British Fauna. The insect in question was brought to him by Dr. Power. Two 

 specimens had very recently been taken in the New Forest. It appeared to the Presi- 

 dent to be identical with the species which in the British Museum collection was 

 labelled " Endophloeus spinosulus, Latr." 



Mr. Pascoe, Mr. Janson and Professor Westwood, however, doubted whether the 

 specimen exhibited were the true Endophloeus spinosulus of Latreille. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby showed some specimen sheets of Dr. Hagen's ' Bibliotheca Ento- 

 raologica,' which it was expected would be published in July next, at the price of ten 

 shillings or thereabouts. 



Dr. Wallace called the attention of the Meeting to a plan he had recently adopted 

 of mounting Micro-Lepidoptera. He employed common wax lights, simply rolled 

 and flattened out: they were at once soft and retentive of the small pins; portions 

 could be cut of any length that might be requisite to hold the number of specimens 

 which the collector placed in his cabinet, and the whole series of the insects be fixed 

 in the cabinet by means of a strong pin passing through either end of the flat strip of 

 wax. Dr. Wallace had found this plan very advantageous in moving large numbers 

 of specimens, and especially so in averting accidents from letting the insects fall. The 

 strip of wax acted as a parachute, and by its lightness averted the destruction which ■ 

 might otherwise befall the specimens. 



The Secretary read, on behalf of Mr. George Wailes, of Newcastle, the following 

 paper : — 



Notes on Bembidium nigricorne, Gyll. 



" It may not be uninteresting if! state the source whence the specimens of Bem- 

 bidium nigricorne, G^^/., alluded to by Mr. Waterhouse at the iMeeting of the Society 

 on the 6th of February, I860, were derived, especially as the species has hitherto only 

 been recorded as captured in the Scandinavian district of Europe. I first took it in 



