4924 Entomological Society at Melbourne. 



Note on Melolontha Hippocastani. — A larger number of specimens of M. Hippo- 

 castani has this year come into my possession than during any previous one ; but my 

 information is too limited to enable me to determine whether the greater abundance 

 has been owing to a season more favourable to their development or to a more pro- 

 ductive locality having been examined. My friend Mr. Burgess, who obtained two or 

 three specimens for me last year, kindly engaged to watch for the appearance of the 

 insect this summer in the neighbourhood of Doune Castle, Stirlingshire; and during 

 the last week of May and the first week of June he succeeded in procuring many fine 

 specimens, not a few of which are now in the cabinets of friends in the South. Tn 

 other years the beetle has appeared in the beginning of May. I have this season, for 

 the first time, a specimen from Ayrshire, where also M. vulgaris is said by Mr. Rennie 

 to occur. My oldest specimens are from Cudzow Forest, amongst whose noble oaks 

 the Urus scoticus still leads a half-savage life: the old gardener who collected them 

 there twenty or thirty years ago, when his activity began to fail called in the aid of a 

 canine assistant, which caught them as they rose from the grass at dusk to career 

 among the trees during the night, thereby increasing the number, without, however, 

 improving the quality of his master's specimens. I am here strongly tempted to remark, 

 that many other species sent me in exchange by correspondents in previous years seem 

 to have been taken by terriers also, contrasting as they do most painfully with un- 

 mutilated specimens that come through the hands of true entomological taste and 

 tact. I have been much struck by the difference in size of all the Scotch specimens 



I have seen, compared with a couple of Continental ones in my possession. The 

 latter do not exceed 9^ lines in length and 4| in breadth, while the former are from 



II to 12^ in length and of to 6 in breadth : most of my females singly outweigh both 

 the Continental specimens. It would be interesting to know whether the sizes 

 indicated above generally prevail in the respective latitudes. — Robert Hislop ; Blair 

 Lodge, Falkirk, October 30, 18a5. 



Entomological Society and Museum at Melbourne. — When I last saw you in England 

 you expressed a desire that I would sometimes write to you on the subject of Natural 

 History, and I have much regretted that circumstances have prevented me from doing 

 so as I could have wished: you are, however, I am sure, quite aware of the many 

 difficulties which rise up in the path of every new arrival in a colony, and more 

 particularly in that of Australia. Since I have been a resident here I have beeu able to 

 devote only a very limited portion of my time to my favourite pursuit, and have thus 

 been prevented from maintaining a correspondence with many friends at home (your- 

 self among the number) upon the subjects which are mutually interesting to us. 

 Things are, however, gradually — I may almost say rapidly — settling down to a condi- 

 tion similar to that of the mother country, and consequent improvements in our social 

 condition are every day witnessed : among these advancements I regard as the most 

 important a rising desire among the colonists to investigate and develope the natural 

 productions of their adopted country; and a very excellent Museum is in course of 

 formation in Melbourne. Tn this establishment, however, the branch of Natural 

 History in which I am most interested (Entomology) is — and, from various reasons, 

 will be — totally neglected: this is a source of great regret both to myself and to many 

 gentlemen here who are interested in this branch of natural science, and we have 

 privately resolved upon the formation of an Entomological Society and Museum, the 

 principal ends we shall have in view being the formation of as large a collection as 



