4964 Entomological Society. 



was collected, yet I may observe that the last cocoons of any kind that I collected in 

 Australia were obtained in March, 1854, a month equalling the September of this 

 country. The long- period of fifteen months that this moth must have passed in the 

 pupa state I attribute to the rigours of a passage round Cape Horn and to the 

 intense cold of the last English winter.' In reference to this note, I may remark the 

 pupa state in Eriogaster, and many allied genera, is of very inconstant and uncertain 

 duration, and that the same irregularity may possibly take place in certain Australian 

 Bombyces." 



Abundance of Noctuida, fyc. 



Extracts were read from letters to the President from Mr. T. Allis, of York, on 

 the abundance of Noctuae generally in the North of England during the past 

 summer ; and from Mr. J. Hogg, of Stockton-on-Tees, also remarking the abundance 

 of Noctuae, and the comparative rarity this autumn of the common wasp (Vespa 

 vulgaris). 



Gall-Jiij of the Oak. 

 The President communicated the following note on Cynips: — 



"When Mr. Haliday visited Glanville's Wootton last month, he collected some 

 galls from the oaks, which he put into a bag, and on the 22nd ult. he writes to me 

 from Dublin to say that ' On examining the bag some days since I found several 

 dozens of the Cynips out, but not one Callimome. It seems marvellous how the fly 

 can escape through so small an orifice as it leaves, and I should like to see one 

 emerge. I cannot identify it with any Linnean or Fabrician species, but it is the 

 C. lignicola* of Hartig, and the only one of that group to which the insect of the 

 ink-gall belongs which occurs so far North as England or even Northern Germany. 

 This group, distinguished by the pubescence extended to the posterior segments of the 

 abdomen, includes the largest species of the genus, and those which cause the most 

 elegant and largest galls.' This, I presume, is the Cynips I consider as the 

 C. Quercus-petioli of Linnaeus." 



December 3, 1855. — John Curtis, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors: — 'The Zoologist' for December; by the Editor. 'The Entomologische 

 Zeitung' for November; by the Entomological Society of Stettin. * Ueber die 

 Micropyle und den feinern Bau der Schalenhaut bei den Insekteneiern ; ' by the 

 Author, Prof. Rud. Leuckart, in Giessen. ' On the Illumination of the Diatomaceae, 

 when viewed under the Microscope;' by the Author, Thomas Sansom, A. L.S., &c. 

 'The Journal of the Society of Arts' for November; by the Society. 'The Literary 

 Gazette' for November; by the Editor. 'The Athenaeum' for November; by the 

 Editor. 



* " Mr. Dale's specimens have also hatched ; yet, abundant as the gall now is, he 

 had not the species before/' — J. C. 



