3922 Entomological Society. 



is, that the glass presses equally all over the wings, and also that you can always see 

 whether they are in their proper position or not. 



" I remain, Sir, 



" Your obedient Servant, 



"J. W." 

 " To the President of the Entomological Society." 



Dr. Dutton said that he preferred hydrocyanic acid to all other agents for destroy- 

 ing life in insects. He had found one drop, of Scheele's strength, sufficient to kill 

 fifty insects ; and, so small a quantity being necessary, no danger to the operator need 

 be apprehended. 



Mr. Spence communicated the following note on Termes lucifugus : — 



" As the small yellow ant (Myrmica domestica), now become such a pest in Lon- 

 don, might probably have been easily extirpated, had it been brought under the eye of 

 entomologists on its first introduction from abroad, it may not be amiss to direct the 

 attention of the members of the Society to the possible importation of a still worse 

 pest, the Termes lucifugus of Rossi. The ravages of this minute white ant (first dis- 

 covered in France at Bordeaux by Latreille), at Saintes, Rochefort, and Tournay-Cha- 

 rente, in the western departments of France, were described by M. Audouin twenty 

 years ago, and the accuracy of his observations has been since confirmed by those of 

 MM. Milne-Edwards and Blanchard in the same localities ; but it appears from a 

 paper read before the Academie des Sciences at Paris, on March 28, by M. de Quatre- 

 fage, that this insect has now found its way also into the Port of Rochelle (interesting 

 to entomologists as the birth-place of Reaumur), where it is rapidly extending itself ; 

 and how easily it might thence be brought to our ports in the West of England, where 

 it would find a temperature probably as well suited to its propagation as at Rochelle, 

 need not be pointed out. This species, as Latreille observed, and as M. de Quatre- 

 fage informs us, does not confine itself to dead wood, but attacks living plants and 

 trees, having excavated the stems and tubers of Dahlias, and the trunks and larger 

 branches of poplars. He found chlorine the most effective agent for its destruction.'' 



The Chairman said Dr. Burmeister had shown him the same Termes from the 

 South of Prussia. 



Mr. Stainton communicated the following extract of a letter from Count Nicelli: — 



" Lithocolletis Scabiosella, Douglas, is a very good species. However, it is not the 

 only species on low-growing plants, for Herr von Heyden, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 

 sent me a very beautiful species, something like lautella, bred from a species of Vicia ; 

 it is L. Bremiella. Besides this, I may mention L. Sagittariella, a species allied to 

 Faginella and Mannii, bred from broom ; and another, named by him L. Staintoni- 

 ella, which is allied to L. Betulae, but much smaller, and feeds on broom.'' 



Mr. Westwood mentioned that by a careful examination of the fragments of the 

 Chinese wax-making Coccus, given to him by Mr. Hanbury, he had been able to find 

 wings of the male, and dried bodies and some other parts of both male and female, so 

 that he now thought he could make a sufficient description of the species. He had 

 also found three species of Encyrtus parasitic on this Coccus. 



