Entomological Society. 4045 



attendants who followed carried clusters of ripe dates, and flat baskets of osier-work 

 filled with pomegranates, apples, and bunches of grapes. They raised in one hand 

 small green boughs to drive away the flies. Then came men bearing hares, part- 

 ridges, and dried locusts fastened on rods. The locust has ever been an article of food 

 in the East, and is still sold in the markets of many towns in Arabia. Being intro- 

 duced in this bas-relief amongst the choice delicacies of a banquet, it was probably 

 highly prized by the Assyrians." 



Mr. Douglas also read the following translation from the ' Entomologische Zeitung' 

 for April, of a " Report by Professors Goeppert and Cohn, of a Lecture by Professor 

 von Siebold on Strepsiptera, at a meeting of the Silesian ' Gesellschaft far vaterl. 

 Cultur,' at Breslau, on the 9th of February." 



" The Strepsiptera form such a remarkable and isolated group of insects, that the 

 oldest French and English entomologists, who were the first to draw the attention of 

 the naturalist to these exceedingly rare insect-parasites, raised them into a distinct 

 Order. In Germany they remained almost entirely unnoticed ; indeed, the ignorance 

 of this interesting group was so great, that up to a very late period no account of it 

 exists in any German zoological hand-book. The lecturer, at different times, in jour- 

 nals and papers of scientific Natural-History Societies, has published his observations 

 upon the very singular organization of the Strepsiptera, so different from that of all 

 other insects, and upon the history of their wonderful propagation, without having had 

 here in Germany these communications completed or extended by others ; whilst in 

 England, they appear to be peculiarly fortunate in discovering and observing these in- 

 sects. Through the researches of English entomologists, we know up to this time 14 

 species of Strepsiptera, in 5 genera ; among which are 11 European species. In order 

 not to repeat what the lecturer published on the Strepsiptera some years since, he re- 

 ferred to the last paper on the subject in the ' Proceedings of the Naturforschenden 

 Gesellschaft of Danzig,' Bd. iii. Heft 2, 1839 ; later in the • Entomol. Zeitung,' 1843, 

 p. 113, and in Wiegman's * Archivs fur Naturgeschicte,' 1843, Bd. i. p. 137. Herr 

 von Siebold has continued, in Freiburg, the investigations into the Strepsiptera which 

 he had commenced in Danzig and Erlangen, where it was easy for him to procure 

 his materials : here in Breslau he laboured in vain to obtain Strepsiptera ; and none 

 of the many able Silesian entomologists could give him an idea where and how to pro- 

 cure these insects. Herr von Siebold hopes therefore, after his approaching return to 

 South Germany, again to renew his researches, and to be able to complete his Mono- 

 graph of the Strepsiptera. The reason why he now speaks about them is, that in the 

 last ' Catalogus Coleopterorum Europae,' published by the Entomological Society of 

 Stettin, the Strepsiptera are presented as a family of beetles, under the name of ' Sty- 

 lopites.' The Strepsiptera have had the fate to see themselves classified in all the 

 hitherto known Orders of insects, by those entomologists who would not acknowledge 

 them to be a distinct Order. The first proposition to bring the Strepsiptera among 

 the Coleoptera, was put forth by Burmeister (in his ' Handbuch der Naturgeschichte,' 

 1837, p. 643), without giving any further reason for his supposition that they should 

 occupy their natural position among the family Mordellidae : he was merely led thereto 

 by the idea that the larvae of Strepsiptera are parasites on bees, and the larvae of Sym- 

 bius and Rhipiphorus, belonging to the Mordellidae, also live as parasites, the former 

 on Blatta, the latter on Vespa. This view of Burmeister has recently been supported 



