Entomological Society. 5305 



Dinarda Maerkelii, Kiesenw. Three specimens taken in a nest of the large wood- 

 ant {Formica rufa), one on the 13th of July, the other two on the 24th ultimo. He 

 remarked that the only previously known indigenous example of this insect is in the 

 British Museum collection, and was taken by Dr. Leach many years since, it is said, 

 near Swansea: this individual is admirably represented by Mr. Curtis (Brit. Ent. 

 tab. 4 10), and is given by Mr. Stephens, in the ' Illustrations' and ' Manual,' under the 

 specific appellation of dentata, Grav., but Herr v. Kiesenwetter, long ago (Ent. Zeit. 

 Stett. 1843), pointed out that the Gravenhorstian dentata (Lomechusa) was specifically 

 distinct from the insect exhibited, and in this view all subsequent writers appear to 

 coincide. British specimens of the true dentata, Grav., had not come under 

 Mr. Janson's notice. 



Dendrophilus pygmaeus, L. Two specimens, likewise an inhabitant of, and found 

 on the 20lh of July in, nests of Formica rufa. One other individual only of this 

 insect is extant, he believed, in British cabinets, namely in that of our late respected 

 honorary President, the Rev. W. Kirby, who applied to it the trivial name of Shep- 

 pardi, under which it has been beautifully figured by Mr. Curtis (Brit. Ent. tab. 131), 

 and described in the works of Mr. Stephens. Dr. Aube has likewise described and 

 delineated it (Annales de la Soc. Ent. de France, tome ii.) as Hister formicetorum, 

 Sibi. Dr. Erichson (Kaefer der Mark Brand), having before him a Swedish example, 

 refers it without doubt to the Hister pygrnaeus of Linnaeus, Paykull and Gyllenhal, 

 remarking that " the descriptions of the two last-named writers being somewhat 

 indefinite, it might well happen that such accurate entomologists as Aube and Curtis 

 failed to recognise it." 



Dorcatoma rubens, Ent. Hefte, Stepk. One specimen taken a day or two since 

 in a decaying oak, and which, it would appear, was an extraordinarily precocious 

 individual, as no others were to be found, although the larva?, evidently about to 

 assume the pupa state, were in abundance: on these he would bestow occasional 

 attention, and hoped at no distant period to be able to furnish his friends with this 

 species, whose allotted space in our cabinets had remained so long almost universally 

 vacant. 



Cryphalus binodulus (Weber), Ratzeburg. Four specimens, both sexes, taken a 

 day or two back in the bark of an aspen (Populus tremula). This genus (a dismem- 

 berment of Bostrichus), of which no member had hitherto been recorded as British, 

 was erected by Dr. Erichson for the reception of those species in which the antenna) 

 have the funiculus consisting of four articulations (in Bostrichus, as restricted by the 

 same author, the funiculus is 5-joinled). For a beautifully characteristic figure of the 

 male of this species, from the accurate pencil and graver of S. Weber, he referred the 

 student to the first volume of Ratzeburg's ' Forst-Insecten,' tab. xiii. fig. 18. 



Mr. Stevens stated that, amongst a quantity of plants lately received from Mr. 

 Mason at Madeira, he had found several Lepidopterous larva?, which had produced a 

 species of Plusia allied to P. Gamma, and several specimens of a curious Pyralis,both 

 of which he exhibited : he observed that no doubt many reputed British species had 

 been brought into this country in a similar manner. 



Mr. Hunter took this opportunity of stating that some doubts existed as to the 

 claims of the specimen of Eriopus Latreillii, which he exhibited at the last meeting, to 

 be considered a British insect ; it was found on the outside of one of his breeding-cages, 

 and as there was a quantity of foreign plants in the house at the time, it probably had 



xiv. 3 c 



