26 
Upon motion of Mr. Howard it was voted that the chair appoint a 
committee of three to nominate officers for the ensuing year. 
The following letter from Miss E. A. Ormerod was read: 
One of the first observations of this year was barley infested with Angoumois 
moth, Sitrotroga cerealella Oliv., in cargo from Tripoli. I never had it before, but the 
grains gave mea beautiful set of specimens for figuring. I should hope we need 
not fear its being troublesome here out of doors, but 1 hope to get some notes about 
it from north Africa. 
The most interesting observations which I have had are, I think, about the Lipoptena 
cervi (the deer forest fly). I had quite a good number sent me early in the year, 
some in situ, on a roebuck’s hide sent me on April 2. These enabled me to see that 
in every instance there Was some amount of wing present. In some cases the little 
growth was quite obviously an abortive wing, but in some, from the structure’s being 
torn across, it was impossible to say but that there might have been a fully formed 
wing. I secured a few puparia, but none developed. I hope in due time you will 
like the figures I had taken to show the two states, and another winglet attached by 
a little bit of thorax to the leg, so as to show the relative proportion. I sent some 
over to Professor Mik at Vienna, and I think he was a good deal interested. 
Another infestation that we do not often have is the lesser earwig (Labia minor), 
since it flies in great numbers in the evening, but I never had it before. 
Xyleborus dispar has reappeared to a very undesirable amount at Toddington, and 
just lately we have had a visit in this neighborhood of a great number of the Har- 
palus ruficornis, the ground beetie which did so much mischief to strawberries in 1895 
(vide my nineteenth annual report). The beetles came tumbling or flying down in 
one place from the roof of a house, to the astonishment of the family below. I hoped 
to get some insight into some special point of life history from this, but as yet I have 
not secured it. 
Just now I have a nice quantity of turnip-seed pods from Fyvie, in Aberdeenshire, 
with the larve of the Ceutorhynchus assimilis working at the seeds, and also the 
larval Cecidomyia, presumably, from characteristics, the C. brassice Winnertz. This 
is very interesting, for the weevil larve are so greedy that one can watch them with 
just their head inside the emptied seed shell, working to get every remaining avail- 
able morsel, like a kitten or puppy licking a saucer quite clean. The shrunken seeds, 
blighted by the sucking of the Cecidomyiid larve are in great contrast to this, and 
I was very much pleased to have the specimens, and am taking great pains with a 
view to the rearing of the imago. 
Several other rather nice observations of not quite common infestations have come 
in, which I try to make the most of. 
I do not know whether you will think me very venturesome, but I am meditating 
bringing about a leaflet (or pamphlet, not too large to go into a letter envelope, for 
gratuitous distribution) on that destructive pest, the house sparrow, Passer domesticus. 
The mischief it does in many ways is really beyond what ought to be allowed, and 
it is unfortunately still on the list of our protected birds. 
It seemed to me that our only hope to make any advance was to work on the lines 
of your United States of America Board of Agriculture, so I have been compiling 
(duly acknowledged) records of results of examination of stomach contents, and I 
greatly hope that I shall have the invaluable cooperation of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, 
who has given such attention to bird life. 
