5082 Entomological Society. 



The Rev. W. H. Hawker sent for exhibition a singularly pale variety of Arctia 

 Caja, bred at Horndean. 



Mr. Douglas exhibited living larvae, probably of Ocnerostoma piniariella, feeding 

 within the foliage of the Scotch fir. 



Mr. Walker exhibited a Necrophorus Vespillo and a cockehaffer, dug up last 

 month. 



Mr. Wollaston exhibited some of the Coleoptera captured by him last summer, at 

 Madeira. 



Acari and "Fogging" of Daguerreotypes. 



Mr. Tapping exhibited a drawing of an Acarus, of which many dead examples 

 were found by Mr. Fedarb, of Dover, beneath the glass of a Daguerreotype ten years 

 old ; and as this picture was affected by what is technically termed " fogging," it had 

 been thought there might be some connection between Acari and this obscuration of 

 Daguerreotype pictures, a subject which had recently excited much attention. 



Mr. White said this Acarus was very like, and probably identical with, Cheyletus 

 eruditus, the common paste mite ; that its presence was due to paste having been 

 used in mounting the picture ; and that the destruction of the Daguerreotype was in 

 no way referrible to the Acari. 



It appeared, however, from the reading of a long correspondence between Mr. Fe- 

 darb and Mr. Tapping, that the picture was mounted in a tin tray, and that the plate 

 and glass were so tightly pressed together that the edge of a pen-knife could not be 

 inserted between them, that the whole was in a morocco case with silk lining, and 

 there was no paste, glue or cement used in the mounting. 



Destruction of growing Corn by Dipterous Larva. 



Mr. Westwood said the Society had received from Mr. Botting, of Poynings, 

 Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, some larvae, accompanied by a letter stating that they existed 

 in the fields in that neighbourhood in vast numbers, destroying the growing corn to a 

 great extent, and enquiring how they might be exterminated. The larva? appeared to 

 be those of a Tipula in a young state, and they would consequently continue to feed 

 for some months, so that there was little chance of any side shoots being left: but he 

 was unwilling to advise that the crop should be merely ploughed up, for as the larvae 

 were so numerous they would not be much thinned by birds, and a second sowing 

 would have but a poor chance of succeeding. He had recently been consulted 

 respecting some corn crops destroyed by the larvae of a Muscideous fly, probably 

 Oscinis vastator, and had advised his correspondent to have the ground turned up and 

 burnt, and he would recommend a similar course in the present instance. 



Read the following note by Mr. Newman : — 



On the Parturition of Dorthesia Characias. 



" k The smallest contribution thankfully received.' So says every true lover of 

 insect economy : it matters not a straw to him that some one says the subject has been 

 exhausted years and years ago; he still keeps on prying into Nature's secrets, poking 

 bis nose into holes and corners, noting with his own eyes and jotting down in his own 

 manner those little domestic scenes which are sure to reveal themselves to every one 



