Entomological Society. 



8101 



Prof. Westwood exhibited a dry collodion plate, on the coating of which— con- 

 sisting of gelatine, collodion, nitrate of silver and tannin — considerable devastation 

 had been committed by Blatta orientalis ; and in reference thereto read the following 

 extract from a letter addressed by W, G. Orinerod, Esq., of Chagford, to Mr. Spence 

 Bate : — k ' The enclosed may possibly interest you as an entomologist, one of the 

 ' ologies' that I have not dabbled with. I find that the black beetles are particularly 

 fond of dry collodion plates, in the progress from wet to dry, when reared in a box in 

 a dark cupboard. Several had suffered before I found out the cause. At last I caught 

 one black beetle in the act. The animal seems to have been particularly fond of the 

 thick collodion ; by the way, he has cleared it off at the corner: the alternate action 

 | of the mandibles seems very clear." 



Prof. Westwood remarked that this was not the first instance he had known of 

 insects exhibiting a partiality for chemical substances, and mentioned the case of a 

 species of Ptinus which was found at Knighlsbridge, in great numbers, congregated in 

 a bottle full of chemical solution. 



Mr. Waterhouse exhibited specimens of Seraptia nigricans, Ste., bred from rotten 

 oak wood, in the neighbourhood of London ; and of Trichonyx sulcicollis, one of the 

 Pselapbidae, taken also in the vicinity of London, by Messrs. Douglas and Scott. 



The President exhibited six specimens' of Pentarthrum Huttoni, Woll., taken by 

 Mr. Reading in the Plymouth district ; and read the following extract from a letter 

 received from Mr. Reading : — 



" The history of the enclosed specimens is simply this : — I purchased some mate- 

 rial used in gardening operations, amongst which was a cask of light construction, 

 made of birch with hazel hoops, in the stems and hoops of which this insect was 

 found. The cask had been stowed away in an out-house, with various kinds of wood 

 used for burning. There were but four examples of this insect known to Science pre- 

 vious to the capture of these, and they, too, were taken in Devonshire; so that this 

 insect is purely Devonian. It was described by Mr. Wollaston in the ' Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History' for Augusl, 1854, to which I beg to refer all those who 

 feel interested in the history of the species. Alter you have shown the specimens to 

 the Meeting, will you be pleased to present a pair of them to the Eutomological So- 

 ciety, also a pair to the British Museum, and a pair to the collection of the Entomo- 

 logical Club." 



Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited a specimen (the second) of Brahmsea Hearseyi, White. 

 Mr. White exhibited it at the Zoological Society a few months ago, and said that it 

 confirmed the characters by which he had separated the species from the Certhia, 

 Fab. : it was found in a collection of insects received direct from India. 



Mr. Kirby also exhibited a magnificent female specimen of Parnassius Clarius, a 

 rare, species inhabiting various chains of mountains in Asiatic Russia, and coming 

 nearer to P. Nordinanni than to any other European species. 



Prof. Westwood said that at the close of tlie Exhibition of 1851 he had drawn up 

 and read a report of the insect products exhibited : he had not yet had an opportunity 

 of going fully through the present International Exhibition, but he thought it might 

 be agreeable to the members of the Society if he pointed out what of an entomologi- 

 cal nature had already attracted his attention. Of the collections from foreign 

 countries, he might mention those from Canada and South Australia, the latter, how- 

 ever, not very good ; and a collection of insects of all orders from Guiana, the most 

 remarkable of which was a species of Paussus, probably a uew genus, but unfor- 



