4450 Entomological Society. 



composed of fungoid matter. He thought it probable that the nests of some of our 

 native species were not made altogether of wood, as is generally believed, and in cor- 

 roboration of this idea exhibited a piece of decayed wood from one of the cedars in the 

 Botanic Garden at Chelsea, in which was a layer of fungus, and wasps, he said, were 

 observed to frequent this tree for building materials. 



Mr. Curtis said he had often seen wasps scraping off and carrying away particles 

 from wooden palings where there certainly was no fungus. 



Mr. Wing said he had recently seen wasps carrying away the pile from the leaves 

 of a species of mullein. 



Mr. Stevens exhibited a drawing of a variety of a larva of Acherontia Atropos made 

 by a gentleman, who thought it might be a distinct species, but the imago reared from 

 it (which was also exhibited) proved to be only a very slight variety ; and Mr. West- 

 wood, referring to Fuessly's ' Archives,' showed that the same variation from the or- 

 dinary colour of the larva was there figured. 



Mr. Stevens also exhibited the very rare species of Curculionidae, Trachodes his- 

 pidus ; this single specimen having been taken by Mr. Plant, of Leicester, by sweep- 

 ing under oaks in a wood near that place. 



Mr. Boddy exhibited a living specimen of the rare Ludius ferrugineus, of which 

 the larva was found in a rotten ash tree near London, on the 3rd of September, 1853, 

 and the beetle appeared on the 9th of July last. He also exhibited a living larva of 

 the same species, respecting which Mr. Westwood observed the last segment of the 

 body had not the least denticulation, thus affording a good character for generic dis- 

 tinction. 



Mr. Douglas exhibited a series of specimens of Grapholita nisella, Linn.^ bred from 

 catkins of sallow and poplar, including all the varieties Pavonana, Boeberana, cuspi- 

 dana, rhombifasciana and cinerana, which had been placed together by Mr. H. Dou- 

 bleday, and might now be deemed without doubt to be but one species. 



Notes on Irish Sphcerice. 



Mr. A. R. Hogan, of Dublin, sent the following communication respecting two ex- 

 amples of a Sphaeria, accompanied by the specimens referred to. 



" The Lepidopterous larva bearing the Sphaeriae now laid before the Society was 

 taken by me on the 10th of March, 1853, while digging for pupae at the roots of an 

 oak tree in Mount Merrion, a demesne belonging to the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, 

 and not far distant from the place where I live. The Sphaeriae were at the time quite 

 young, the tallest not being more than a quarter of an inch in height ; and the species 

 appeared to be the same as that on a former occasion (5th July, 1852), exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Entomological Society, with no apparent difference but that of the 

 shoots being somewhat stronger and thicker. The following entry appears in my note- 

 book, made on the 12th of April : — ' On examining the larva taken last month, which 

 by Professor Harvey's advice has been kept moist in a jam-pot filled with clay and 

 moss, and covered with a piece of glass, I found fully a dozen fresh sprouts on it, pure 

 white, and one of them about the height of a line, shaped like the point of a dagger. 

 From that time the Sphaeriae continued to grow, some more and some less rapidly, for 

 several months, always retaining the white point at the end of each stem, generally 

 covered with small drops of moisture, till at length the cold of winter seemed to deaden, 

 though it did not destroy, their vitality. Meantime none of the shoots showed any 



