26 



June, 



Mr. Dcsvignes also commuuicated sevei-al papers on Ichneumonidce to the 

 Transactions of tlie Entomological Society of London ; and the last volume of this 

 Magazine contains descriptions of two new species from his pen, viz., Ichneumon 

 cavihrensis, at p. 130, and Pimpla opacellata, at p. 174. 



His collection of British Insects will shortly be sold at Stevens'. Altogether, 

 it is a fine one, and in tlie Ichncumonidae, as may be supposed, the finest ever 

 formed of the British species. In the Aculeate Hymenoptera it is also good, in- 

 cluding, as it does, the types of Shuckard's Fosso7'es ; and in the Coleoptera it is 

 rich in Elateridce and Xylopliaga, containing many rare species in other groups, and 

 including Shuckard's collection. There is also a good collection of Diptera, to which 

 order Mr. Desvignes at one time paid considerable attention. 



Deaths of Foreign Entomologists. — Three North European Entomologists of 

 some note have recently passed away — Von Tiedemaim, of Dantzic ; Sommer, of 

 Altona ; and Westermann, of Copenhagen. All three must have been well advanced 

 in years j the latter had attained the great age of 87. 



Entomological Society of London, 4th May, 1868. H. T. Stainton, Esq., 

 F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Trimeu exhibited a cocoon of Saturnia pavonia-minor, with the abdomen 

 of the imago protruding from one end. This cocoon was spun in a small box, and 

 the imago, failing to eflfect its escape head- foremost, had turned and endeavoured 

 to emerge tail first, and had died in the attempt. 



Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited a collection of the larvae of Lepidoptera, preserved in 

 a most life-like manner by Mr. Davis, of Waltham Cross. 



Mr. Stainton called the attention of the Meeting to a species of Antispila 

 mining the leaves of the vine in the island of Malta ; the details of the life-history 

 of which were published in 1750 in the Memoires de 1' Academic des Sciences de 

 Paris, in a letter to Eeaumur from M. Godeheu de Riville. This larva had not 

 since been observed. Mr. Stainton proposed to call the species A. Rivillei. 



Mr. McLachlan said he had recently received a pamphlet from Chevalier 

 Ghiliani, of Turin, respecting the appearance in Italy, last year, of immense swarms 

 of the dragon fly, Anax Mediterranens. This insect had been originally described 

 from an example supposed to have been taken in Sardinia ; but the species had 

 been erased from the European List. 



Mr. Smith exhibited the larva of a Xantholinus, to the under-side of which 

 were attached the pupa? of a species of Proctotrupidce ; also the larva of Cerostemo 

 gladiator, and a species of Acheta, destructive to forest-trees in Madras. 



Dr. Cleghoru, Conservator of Forests in the Madras Territory, detailed an 

 account of the ravages of these insects, and said, in answer to doubts expressed of 

 the likelihood of an Acheta causing damage to trees, that this insect bit ofi" the 

 leading shoots. Mr. Trimen had noticed a somewhat similar habit in an allied species 

 in South Africa. 



Mr. Smith exhibited a collection of eight kinds of larvoe destructive to coflfee- 

 trees in India. One of these was a Zenzera, and there were two other Lepidopterous 

 larva). The remaining five pertained to the Coleoptera, and included the notorious 

 •' white borer," Xylotrechus quadripes. Respecting this latter insect, Dr. Cleghorn 



