4642 Entomological Society. 



" My esteemed friend, — I take the liberty to enclose to you some pieces of bark 

 covered with the scales of a Coccus which is making appalling havoc in the orchards 

 of Illinois and Wisconsin, and is abundant in my own neighbourhood. I have sup- 

 posed this to be the Aspidiotus linearis (Coccus arborum-linearis, Modeer, fyc), but 

 have at hand no good description of that species, and am not without suspicions that 

 it maybe your A. Ostreaeformis or couchiformis, these names being far more applicable 

 to these scales than is that of linearis. As this insect will be embraced in the Report 

 on insects injurious to fruit trees, which I am now preparing (for the New York Stale 

 Agricultural Society, pursuant to directions of the State Legislature), I wish to be 

 more certain with regard to its true name. A word from you, in reply to my inquiry, 

 will be very gratefully received." 



The President exhibited the insects in sitH: they were the Coccus arborum-linearis, 

 Geoff., and the C. couchiformis he believed of Gmelin. The President remarked that 

 " It is a subject for congratulation that these matters are being taken up by the State, 

 and, from the valuable work of Dr. Harris having reached a second edition, it is evi- 

 dent these important objects will in future not be neglected in the United States." 



Proposed Monograph of Elaterida. 



The President said M. Candeze of Liege, one of the authors of the * Catalogue 

 des Larves des Coleopteres,' had written to him to make known his intention of pub- 

 lishing a complete Monograph upon the Family Elateridae, which he estimates at 3000 

 species. He solicits the assistance and cooperation of the entomologists of this 

 country, by the loan of specimens, especially those of the East Indies and Australia. 

 Most of the professors in the different cities of Europe have promised to lend him 

 specimens for description, which he undertakes to return speedily.* He is one of the 

 pupils of Professor Lacordaire, to whom the Catalogue is dedicated; and the President 

 will be happy to transmit to him any specimens which the Members are willing to 

 send him, provided they be entrusted before the end of February, when his friend will 

 leave London. 



Note on Psyche helicinella. 

 Under this title Mr. Douglas read the following remarks: — 



" More than a century ago Reaumur, in his ' Memoires,' f recorded the discovery 

 of some curious helieiform cases, which he believed to be those of the larvae of a moth, 

 although he reared from them only ' une petite mouche noire et a quatre ailes,' which 

 Siebold thinks must have been a Chalcis parasitic on the larva. 



" Professor Siebold, % in a notice of the recent discovery by several entomologists of 

 helical cases, which he regards as identical with those mentioned by Reaumur, states 

 the curious fact that none of the finders thereof, nor any other entomologists, had 



* England, he writes, has not responded to his appeal in the name of Science, 

 which has been made to the Entomological Society of London through Mr. Westwood. 

 His fust volume will appear at the end of the summer, and he especially wants the 

 genera Agrypnus, Campsosternus, Hemops and Crepidomenus. 



t Tome iii. Pavt 1, 12mo, p. 249. 



\ Trans. Ent. Soc, Vol. i. n. s., page 238. 



