1042 Insects. 



cattle are sent to graze, and which appear to become infested with them from their 

 crawling up their legs while feeding. After having attached themselves by means of 

 a very curious apparatus with which they are furnished, they gorge themselves with 

 blood, and the abdomen increases in size from about the tenth of an inch, until they 

 become as large as a small bean. When fully gorged they fall off, and the author 

 was not able to ascertain their further progress. The form of this insect is oval ; it 

 has eight legs, in which particular it differs from the Brazilian species described by 

 Mr. Busk in a former paper read to the Society, these last having but six. These legs 

 are attached to the anterior half of the trunk, and consist of seven joints, the tarsi be- 

 ing terminated by a species of webbed foot, capable of being folded together, and fur- 

 nished with two recurved claws. The oral apparatus by which it attaches itself is ex- 

 ceedingly interesting. It consists of two palpi, serving as a kind of sheath to the other 

 parts when inactive, two jointed mandibles, and a barbed or hooked labium. Speci- 

 mens of this and other species were afterwards exhibited. Head also a paper by H. 

 Deane, Esq., ' On the existence of Fossil Xanthidia in the Chalk.' After mentioning 

 that the occurrence of Xanthidia in a fossil state in any other situation than in the 

 flint-nodules of the chalk had not hitherto been observed, and consequently that great 

 doubt existed whether these fossils were really independent animal existences, or only 

 parts of some other creature ; Mr. Deane stated that there is a greyish kind of chalk, 

 having no flints, but containing quantities of nodules of iron pyrites, which juts into 

 the sea between Dover and Folkestone, forming the beach for some distance. Upon 

 exposing a portion of this to the action of hydrochloric acid, and examining microsco- 

 pically the insoluble sediment, bodies similar to, if not identical with, the Xanthidia 

 in flints were exposed to view. Several species were clearly to be recognized, together 

 with casts of Polythalamia, and other bodies frequently found in flints. The Society 

 then adjourned until October next. — /. W. 



Capture of JEgeria Sphegiformis. A female specimen in beautiful condition, of 

 this rare " clear-wing,'' was taken by my brother on Wednesday last, at Langwith, 

 near York, and which he has kindly added to my collection. — Robert Cook ; 30, Col- 

 liergate, York, July 4, 1845. 



Entomological Pins. It would be conferring no inconsiderable benefit on collec- 

 tors, if ' The Zoologist ' would make known that there are such things as entomological 

 pirn, of which entomologists in the country seem quite unaware, for nine tenths of the 

 insects I have received this season, have been pierced with skewers. The best pins 

 are the solid-headed ones, made and sold by Edelston <Sc Co., Crown Court, Cheapside, 

 London. Our country friends also have mostly to learn that in order to set a Lepidop- 

 terous insect well, it must be pierced in the centre of the thorax, and the pin kept 

 upright. These may appear simple matters, but the want of attention thereto often 

 spoils the appearance of a drawer, and what is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. 

 J. W. Douglas ; 6, Grenville Terrace, Coburg Road, Kent Road, May 21, 1845. 



Lophopteryx Carmelita. One was taken by Mr. Joseph Standish, at Birch-wood, 

 in April, sitting on the trunk of a fir-tree. — Id. 



Cleora pictaria. One taken by Mr. Benjamin Standish, on the palings at Dart- 

 ford -heath, in April. — Id. 



