5766 Entomological Society. 



to a great depth, and the beautiful butterflies sporting in the hot sunshine. The first 

 to appear is Vanessa Antiopa, which is extremely abundant here ; Andrenidse are also 

 very plentiful; Andrena Clarkella is here, and A. chrysosceles and a very dark spe- 

 cies, like Clarkella but handsomer. I have also found Colletes, Sphecodes and Halic- 

 tus. You say in your Bee-Book that you know of no other genus among the solitary 

 bees but Sphecodes and Halictus that remain torpid in the winter ; but there is one 

 here, a genus I am quite unacquainted with, very like Halictus ; I have found two spe- 

 cies, both of a beautiful golden green ; the commonest of them is found upon every 

 log or stump." (The bees here mentioned belong to my own genus Angochlora, of 

 which I have enumerated thirteen species from North America, and seventeen from 

 different parts of South America ; they are closely allied to the genus Halictus, and 

 are remarkable for having the eyes more or less veniform, some species distinctly so, 

 like a wasp.) " I have also taken several Nomadag, one Coelioxys, and two species of 

 Stelis, Melecta and Anthophora ; a very large Chelostoma, and four species of 

 Bombi ; also one Apathus. Here are also great quantities of ants, of which I hope to 

 send you a great number. I have met with one species of the genus Tapinoma. 

 The greatest annoyance here is from flies, which in fact are the only things I dislike 

 in the country. When you go out in summer, you are immediately pounced upon by 

 a swarm of mosquitoes, black flies, cattle and deer flies, all eager to suck your blood. 

 The mosquitoes are truly awful. One day, putting off in a canoe to cross a lake, I was 

 completely covered with them; and so dreadful were their stings that I was driven 

 almost mad. Their bite is extremely sore, and itches to a degree no one can imagine ; 

 the swelling was so great upon myself that I could neither close my hands nor move my 

 fingers for several days. The only way to obtain rest at night is to light heaps of 

 rotten wood and Fungi round your house. The contrast of temperature here is very 

 great, 96° in the shade in July, and 32° below zero in January. To-day the cold is 

 intense. I am writing this before a red-hot stove, to prevent the ink from freezing." 



Mr. Douglas read the following note on 



Trachys pygmcea. 



" In the ' Revue et Magasin de Zoologie' of M. Guerin-Meneville, No. 2, 1857, 

 is a report of a memoir by M. Leprieur, read by M. Dumeril at a Meeting of the Aca- 

 demie des Sciences de Paris held on the 2nd of February, 1867, intituled ' Essai sur 

 les Metamorphoses du Trachys pygmaea, insecte de la famille des Buprestides,' from 

 which I beg to present the following extract, which will be the more interesting as it 

 relates to an insect which is a native of Britain, but hitherto exceedingly rare in our 

 collections. 



" ' M. Leprieur, after recapitulating in his memoir several observations already made, 

 by authors whom he quotes, upon the larvae of some coleopterous insects which live in 

 the interior of stems of plants, under the bark or in the woody tissue, mentions those in 

 particular which are developed in plants of the order Malvaceae. The author relates 

 that haviug remarked upon tufts of the mallow several leaves bearing vesicular spots, 

 coarsely rounded in their circumference, of a yellow tint, contrasting with the green 

 colour of the leaves, he sought to know the cause of them ; and he supposed that they 

 had been the abode of some insect. The following year he was fortunate enough to 

 prove the presence in these little cavities of a Buprestis, which, in the space of two or 

 three weeks, went through all the phases of its development. This was to him an ex- 



