Entomological Society. 707 1 



abdomen pure white, the markings in all other respects being as usual. The insect 

 was taken at Freshwater. 



Mr. Rye exhibited a specimen of Euryporus picipes, taken at Holme Bush. Also 

 both sexes of Ptiuus germanus, from Purfleet ; and a fine series of Badister peltatus, 

 taken by himself near Boston. 



Mr. Saunders read the following extracts from Froebel's ' Central America,' 

 pp. 433 and 537 :— 



Poisonous Caterpillars. 



"Early the next morning we arrived at San Antonio. Here I learned what had 

 befallen, during the three months of ray absence, the small caravan with which I had 

 started from Chihaohoa. They had encamped in the prairie, a few miles from San 

 Antonio. Sickness had broken out among the mules, carrying off nineteen of the best 

 animals, and afterwards more died on the road. Several had been bitten by rattle- 

 snakes, and saved with the greatest difBcully. The same thing happened to one of 

 our drivers, but a remarkable accident befel the waggon-master ; he had crushed on 

 his hand a little hairy caterpillar which was crawling on it, and in a few minutes the 

 most alarming symptoms appeared. A shiver ran from the hand through his whole 

 frame, and especially down his back. His abdomen swelled, his tongue was heavy, 

 his consciousness became dimmed, and for a week the man was in imminent danger. 

 I afterwards saw the caterpillar in a collection of insects at San Antonio, where the 

 patient recognised it. If he was right it is a little worm covered with long yellowish 

 hairs, about a quarter of an inch long ; it resembles a caterpillar, but whether it is 

 one I cannot say. I afterwards heard of other examples of the extraordinary eflfects 

 caused by this creature. In a garden at Indianola one of them dropped from a tree 

 on to a child's arm, who immediately screamed with pain ; the arm swelled, a violent 

 fever came on, and the child's life was in great danger for several days." — p. 433. 



Mineralogical Ants. 

 " Before continuing the account of our journey I must offer a remark connected 

 with an observation I made in the desert. When traversing certain parts of the North- 

 American Steppes and Deserts I have frequently observed ant-hills formed exclusively 

 of small stones of the same mineral species, as, for instance, small grains of quartz. 

 In one part of the Colorado Desert the hills of these mineralogical ants consisted of 

 heaps of small shining fragments of crystallized feldspar, chosen by these little animals 

 from the various components of the coarse sand of these parts. The last time I was 

 at El Faro a North- American driver came to me and inquired the value of a small 

 I bag of garnets he possessed. On my asking in what place they had been found I 

 I heard that these stones — imperfect crystals of red transparent garnets — were the 

 material of which the ants build their hills in the country of the Navago Indians, in 

 New Mexico, and that he knew a place where any quantity of them might be collected. 

 These remarks may perhaps not be uninteresting to the question relating to the gold- 

 seeking ants of Herodotus." — p. 537. 



Mr. Saunders also read descriptions of some new species of the genus Erateina ; 

 and exhibited the insects to the meeting. 



Part 5 of the current volume of the Society's ' Transactions' was on the table. — 

 E.S. 



