THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 235 



depositing eggs, they had burrowed into the earth and there 

 remained, so that it became a question whether they do not 

 hybernate in the ground, and lay their eggs in the spring, at 

 a time when there would be a better supply than in the 

 autumn, of eggs and larvae of the Anthophora. Prof. West- 

 wood said both sexes of Meloe violaceus were found in the 

 spring ; and suggested whether these had hybernated under- 

 ground. Mr. Pascoe mentioned that near Narbonne he had 

 once seen a dozen specimens of Meloe maialis impaled 

 on Cactus opuntia, and as they were quite uninjured except 

 by the spines of the Cactus, the impalement could not have 

 been the work of shrikes. 



Afiobium paniceum. — Mr. Dunning exhibited Anobium 

 paniceum, both larva and imago, living in and consuming 

 Cayenne pepper; and read the following note respecting 

 it :— " In Kirby and Spence (Introd. i. pp. 196, 199, ed. 1843) 

 it is mentioned that Anobium paniceum has been known 

 to consume Cayenne pepper. On the 5th April, 1847, 

 Mr. \V. W. Saunders exhibited to this Society a bottle of 

 capsicum from Bombay, which was greatly infested by 

 Lasioderma testaceum ; and it is added when Kirby and 

 Spence stated Cayenne pepper to be subject to the ravages 

 of Anobium paniceum, that species was ' probably mistaken 

 by them for the former insect, which it greatly resembles.' 

 (vSee Proc. Ent. Soc. 1847, p. viii.) It is clear that this 

 passage means the reverse of what is said — that Lasioderma 

 was mistaken for Anobium, not Anobium for Lasioderma. 

 The authority for Kirby and Spence's statement is Mr. 

 Raddon, who, on the 1st of January, 1838, exhibited to 

 this Society ' a quantity of Cayenne pepper, in v/hich a 

 number of specimens of Anobium paniceum had been reared.' 

 (See Proceedings, p.lxi.) I have now the pleasure of exhibit- 

 ing larvae and beetles in Cayenne pepper, forwarded to 

 me in August from Woolston, near Southampton ; they were 

 described as ' sent over in some Cayenne pepper, and, much 

 to the disgust of the village grocer, they bred and multiplied, 

 the beetles boring holes in the drawer in which the pepper 

 was placed, previous to the discovery of the inmates.' Not- 

 withstanding the doubt expressed in 1847, I venture, in 

 corroboration of Mr. Raddon's observation, to exhibit these 

 beetles as Anobium paniceum." 



