5152 Entomological Society, 



great rarity on the Continent, appeared to be truly Myrmecophilous, and he called the 

 attention of the meeting to the great similarity of form which exists between it and 

 the anomalous genus Tborictus, likewise ants'-nest insects, and of which four species 

 were in the box ; this resemblance he observed appeared, however, to be rather one of 

 analogy than of real affinity. Mr. Janson added that his mode of obtaining these 

 ants'-nest insects was by placing large stones or bricks in the vicinity of the nests, and 

 carefully examining their under surfaces from time to time. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a fine male specimen of Petasia nubeculosa recently taken 

 by Mr. Foxcroft in Perthshire, and a remarkably fine specimen of Aleucis pictaria, 

 which he had lately taken on Dartford Heath ; also Pentaplatarthrus Natalensis, male 

 and female, sent by Mr. B. W. Plant from Natal, and observed that these specimens 

 were extremely interesting, from the fact that the sexes of the Paussidas were not pre- 

 viously known ; he also exhibited several pairs of a singular Brenthus, described by Mr. 

 Westwood in the fifth volume of the 'Transactions' of the Society, p. 206, under the 

 name of Taphroderes distortus, and figured on the 22nd Plate of tbat volume, the left 

 mandible of the male being much larger than the right, and singularly distorted. 



Captain Cox exhibited a very large specimen of Acherontia Atropos taken in the 

 Hospital at Scutari ; also some drawings of the larva? of British Lepidoptera, beauti- 

 fully executed by Mrs. Cox : he expressed his intention, on the series becoming 

 more complete, of making arrangements for their publication. 



Mr. Bond exhibited specimens of the case-bearing larva of Coleophora Wockeella, 

 found on Betonica officinalis, in a wood near Canterbury : only five British specimens 

 of this species have hitherto been detected, all found by Mr. Weir near Pembury. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited, on behalf of Mr. John Scott, a specimen of Elachista 

 Taeniatella, (Zeller), a new British species bred from a larva found last autumn in the 

 leaves of Brachypodium sylvaticum ; he also exhibited a most beautifully executed 

 engraving of Lithocolletis tenella, engraved on steel by Mr. Edward Robinson. 



Mr. Newman communicated the following : — 



Note on Hemerobius variegatus. 



I am indebted to Mr. Dorville for the opportunity of offering to the notice of the 

 Society a singular instance of deviation from normal economy in a very familiar genus 

 of insects: he found the pupa shell of Abraxas Grossularia filled with a beautifully 

 white silken cocoon, which he very logically supposed that of a parasite which had 

 destroyed the pupa ; but lo ! and behold ! when the tenant, and indeed the artificer, of 

 the delicate fabric burst its sere-clothes and emerged as an imago, it proved to be a 

 specimen of Hemerobius variegatus, an insect in which parasitic propensities are utterly 

 unknown. The inference is that the larva of the Hemerobius simply availed itself of 

 the cavernous recesses of the exuviae of the currant-moth as a cosey corner in which 

 to spin its web and undergo its metamorphosis. 



Mr. John Curtis communicated the following notes on the economy of Gonepteryx 

 Rhamni, by Dr. Maclean, of Colchester, dated 1st May, 1856 : — 



" On Friday last the bright sunshine tempted me to the woods in search of the eggs 

 of (i. Rhamni, and not without success, you will say, when I tell you I have above a 

 score of eggs of this insect in my possession : it is my intention to acquire the most 



