3630 Entomological Society. 



The President read an extract of a letter addressed by Signor Passerini of Flo- 

 rence, to Mr. Spenee, stating that he would be happy to send Coleoptera, Hymeno- 

 ptera, and Lepidoptera of Tuscany, to any English entomologists who would apply to 

 him, which he invited them to do by post, and that he wished to receive in return ex- 

 amples of English species of those orders. 



The President stated that lately at Boulogne he found the edge of the cliff swarm- 

 ing with insects of all orders, although none were visible elsewhere. The wind was 

 blowing seaward, and the insects had been driven over the cliff, and had returned and 

 sheltered at the margin. He also said that at the same time and place he saw a hum- 

 ble bee vibrating its wings as if in flight, but not advancing, and he found that it was 

 impaled upon the sharp point of a reed, pierced at its almost only vulnerable point, 

 between the anterior coxae and the mesosternum ; from its position he thought no bird 

 could have impaled it, but that it had been blown on to the reed by the wind. 



Mr. Desvignes said that he had a Noctua found transfixed by a thorn, and he was 

 satisfied, from its being in perfect condition, that no bird had ever touched it. 



Mr. Curtis and Mr. Bond however were of opinion that the majority of insects 

 found impaled, had been so fixed by birds ; and Mr. Waring said he had repeatedly 

 found the nests of shrikes, guided by the birds and insects hung up in their vicinity. 



Mr. Curtis said that at Dover he had lately seen Scaeva Pyrastri in vast abundance, 

 and he was convinced that S. unicolor is only a variety thereof: he was unable, how- 

 ever, to find a male of this striking variety, and would be glad to learn if any existed 

 in the London cabinets. He observed that the males of insects seemed to vary far 

 less than the females, and it often struck him as remarkable that whilst pale varieties 

 of the females of Colias Edusa were not uncommon, a similar variety of the male 

 should be unknown. When in the South of France, in 1830, he caught a pair of C. 

 Edusa flying in copula ; the male was of the usual orange colour, the female pale yel- 

 low, the C. Helice of Hiibner. 



The Secretary read the following notes on the larvae of a few Micro-Lepidoptera, 

 extracted from the ' Tauschvereins Bericht,' 1848 — 50, just received. 



" Myelois epylidella is a rarity. One of my friends discovered the larvae in tubu- 

 lar cocoons on blackthorn. 



u Phycidaea binaevella. The larva lives in autumn in the flowers of the ragwort, 

 (Senecio Jacobcea) ; it is, however, difficult to rear. 



" Micropteryx Anderschella appears with us in spring, when it often swarms in the 

 sunshine on the young shoots of the oak. The larva appears to live as a miner in the 

 leaves of that tree. 



" Depressaria emeritella. We find the larvae at the end of July on tansy (Tanace- 

 tum vulgare), where it lives between united leaves. In seeking for it, one needs to go 

 carefully to work, as on the approach of any danger it hastily descends to the earth. 



" Opostega Laburnella. The food-plant of the larva is the laburnum, {Cytisus 

 Laburnum). Where the larva occurs it is generally plentiful ; but it is best to collect 

 the pupae in autumn. 



" Hypsolophus limosellus, Martini, n. sp. In size and form this new species close- 

 ly resembles Hyps, fasciellus. The anterior wings are narrow, and in form quite the 

 same as in Hyps, fasciellus. The ground-colour is yellowish brown, and before the 

 hinder margin it becomes a nut-brown, which colour is produced by an aggregation of 

 darker atoms. On the costa of the anterior wings, from next the base to the end of the 

 curve, is a narrow, sooty, black-brown streak. On the disk, half way across, three dark 



