Entomological Society. 2405 



a good deal of among collectors at that time, as being a rare occurrence. — William 

 Lean; Birmingham, 6th of 3rd mo., 1849. 



Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 



March 5. — G. R. Waterhouse, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Present — Dr. Lee, Messrs. Spence, Walton, Desvignes, Stephens, Stainton, Yar- 

 rell, Westwood, Parry, Ingpen, White, Doubleday, Wing, Stevens, Dallas, &c. 



Mr. Spence presented to the Society four hundred copies of his Address, delivered 

 at the last Anniversary Meeting of the Society. 



H. F. Farr, Esq., P. H. Vaughan, Esq., andW. J. Wild, Esq., were elected mem- 

 bers of the Society ; and H. Cooke, Esq., George Ingall, Esq., Thomas Ingall, Esq., 

 and A. Maitland, Esq., subscribers to the Society. 



A beautiful collection of Tineida?, purchased by subscription from Herr Mann, of 

 Vienna, with a view of assisting in unravelling their synonymy, was exhibited. 



Mr. Westwood informed the meeting that the vacancy in the Berlin Museum, 

 caused by the death of Dr. Erichson, had been filled up by the appointment of a local 

 entomologist, whose name was all but unknown. Mr. Westwood added that he was 

 sure all present who knew Dr. Schaum would regret that he had been passed over in 

 this appointment to a situation for which his eminent talents so well qualified him. 



Mr. Westwood read the following letter from W. Atkinson, Esq., of Gordon Street, 

 Gordon Square: — 



" I take the liberty of requesting the name of the insect that has made such 

 destruction in the cork that I send you herewith. I first made the discovery of such 

 an enemy in my cellar about two years since, and during that period have occasion- 

 ally succeeded in drawing a cork with the larva alive in it (of a fine delicate whitish 

 colour, with a light brown head), but generally the insertion of the corkscrew — acting 

 like a wedge — crushes it entirely. It is not a little remarkable that during all this 

 period I have never once seen anything in the shape of a beetle, nor have I ever seen 

 any insect about the bottles in the bins, although I have made a practice of a care- 

 ful examination — in hopes of catching the beetle — every time I enter my cellar. 

 Some time after I first noticed this destruction in the corks, I showed one to an ento- 

 mological friend, who at once pronounced it to be Cryptophagus cellaris ; but upon 

 reference to the works in my possession — say Kirby and Spence, Stephens' * Illus- 

 trations,' and Samouelles' ' Compendium ' — I cannot find the slightest allusion to the 

 insect of that name as eating cork, neither under the head of Dermestes, Ptinus or 

 Anobium, which seems to me the more surprising — particularly in Kirby and Spence, 

 where the subject of destructive insects is so fully treated — as my wine-merchant in- 

 forms me that there is scarcely a wine-merchant's cellar in London that is free from 

 them, consequently thus spreading the nuisance to their customers' cellars ; and in 

 some cases of private cellars the ravages have been so serious as to cause the obliga- 

 tion to re-cork nearly the whole contents of a cellar, which is a serious affair, as 

 placing a gentleman in the awkward predicament of losing his wine by its running 

 out of the bottles, or quite spoiling it by the operation of recorking. I should much 

 like to be informed if at any time this plague has been brought before the notice of 

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