356 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
(4.) Notes of the Insects which feed on the Esere^ or Ordeal- Bean of 
Old Calabar. By John Alex, Smith, M.D. 
At the last meeting of the Society Dr Smith read extracts 
from a letter he had received from the Kev. Alexander Robb 
of Old Calabar, in reference to his discovery of insects feed- 
ing on the Esere, or Poison-bean ; and at the same time Dr 
Hewan exhibited the specimens of these insects which he 
had got from Mr Robb and brought home for examination. 
Dr Smith was rather surprised at the apparent discre- 
pancy of Mr Robb's description of the insect as a small grey 
moth, with that of the insects also given by Mr Robb to the 
late Rev. Mr Baillie, and by him to Dr Thomas R. Fraser, 
which had been described as being the Crimson-speckled 
Footman Moth, — the Beiopeia pulchella. Dr Thomas R. 
Fraser, in his paper published in the " Annals and Magazine 
of Natural History" for May 1864, gives the following ac- 
count of the insects found feeding on the Calabar bean 
received by him from the Rev. Mr Baillie : — " I am indebted 
to my friend, Dr John Anderson of this city, for the identi- 
fication of this moth. Specimens of the caterpillar, cocoons, 
and imago, were kindly sent by him to the British Museum, 
and were pronounced by the authorities of the insect depart- 
ment to be the Beiopeia pulchella (ord. Lepidoptera, fam. 
TineidcB^ Leach). The description and figure given in the 
fourth volume of Curtis's ' British Entomology' appears to 
correspond accurately with the imago in my possession." 
Dr Smith got the phial containing the insects (cater- 
pillars, pupse, and moths) from Dr Hewan for examination, 
and found :— - 
1. The Caterpillars varied considerably in size, but they 
were all of the smooth and naked character to be expected 
in the inhabitants of tunnels cut by themselves in the 
hard seeds or kernels of the poison-beans, and none of them 
appeared to resemble the hairy larvse of Beiopeia pidchella. 
They measured from about ^th of an inch to |ths or nearly 
an inch in length, and differed proportionally in thickness 
from to -/o-ths of an inch, probably the same caterpillar 
of dillerent ages, as the markings on all were alike. The 
