Entomological Society. 



6775 



Dr. Knaggs exhibited some specimens of a species of Ino, which he considered 

 might be distinct from the known British species, Ino Statices and I. Globularia;: he 

 also exhibited a singular mass of cocoons fouud on a twig of the Virginian creeper, 

 at Kentish Town, which Mr. Westwood pronounced to be the cocoons of Microgaster 

 alvearius. 



Mr. Janson exhibited a specimen of Emus hirtus, taken at Southend by 

 Mr. Ha ward; and an example of the true Anchomenus elongatus, Dejean, taken by 

 Mr. Brewer at Southwold, Suffolk, — the specimen, which is unique as British, now 

 belongs to the collection of Mr. Jeakes. 



Mr. Janson read some extracts from Henry Mann, Esq., of Mercarra in Coorg, 

 Madras Presidency, respecting a species of Coccus, which has done much injury to 

 the coffee plantations in that part of India. 



Mr. Mitford stated that he had recently captured a single larva of Deilephila 

 Euphorbia; in the Isle of Wight. 



The Larva of the Gnat. 

 Mr. Westwood read a letter from Mr. Swan, which stated that whilst trying some 

 experiments in bleaching materials for paper, he had occasion to use some rain-water 

 swarming with the larvae of the gnat. Wanting to make some strong alkaline ley, he 

 put 2 oz. of soda (used for washing) with 2 oz. of quick-lime into a pint of the water, 

 whereupon the larvae darted about as usual, and did not appear in the least incon- 

 venienced after the soda was dissolved and the lime slacked, nor did they succumb till 

 the water was placed over a fire to be boiled. Knowing that chloride of lime was 

 very destructive in killing fish (from seeing the effects of the spent liquor thrown by 

 the paper-makers iuto the river, after having used it for bleaching their pulp), he tried 

 the effect of it upon these larvae in two quarts of water, in which ov er 1 tb. of bleaching 

 salts (or chloride of lime) was thoroughly dissolved, and which was so strong that 

 after stirring it up with the hand he was obliged to anoint it with some oil to take off 

 the injurious effect produced upon the skin; these larvae, however, seemed quite at 

 home and comfortable, if anything a little more lively, even after having been in the 

 liquor an hour and a half. 



Observations on Sitaris humeralis. 



Mr. Smith read some remarks on Sitaris humeralis by Mr. Stone, in which the 

 writer, after stating that his attention had been directed to these insects on some old 

 walls in the neighbourhood of Brighthampton, by a paper by Mr. J. W. Douglas, 

 published in No. 149 of the ' Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,' observes: — 



"On the 1 7th of August the insect made its first appearance this season, and in 

 the course of that day I secured seven specimens. On the following day I obtained 

 four more, and on the third and fourth days a couple of dead ones. Not a single 

 specimen was to be met with from this period till the 3rd of September, when the 

 insect again appeared, and this time in great profusion. I procured that day upwards 

 of thirty specimens, and they have been coming out daily, in numbers apparently 

 varying somewhat, according to the temperature, from that time to the present 

 (September 27th). 



" When the insect first began to appear in the winged state I set about exploring 

 the cells of the bee upon which it was said to be parasitic. In doing this I obtained 

 three or four larva; just about to become pupa?. The change from one state to the 



